Yep, Its now a real concern as both Melbourne and Sydney are now projected to be the size of London (each) by 2040s. That’s two London size cities side by side.
I’ve been in Melbourne almost 5 years now, and im very much over it. Not sure if its the ‘from Perth’ thing but I feel its very overrated. I love elements, like live theatre and local events, but apart from that, all of the things I loved as a visitor, aren’t resonating as a resident.
Maybe Brisbane next. Or back to Perth.
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As a South Aussie I used to think that, but having been twice already this year (after so many years) I’m kinda in love with the city. The vibes, transport, services, city-life, food, attractions etc are all far superior to Adelaide. If you’re moving I’d happily take your place there 
As for Sydney, nice to visit, terrible to live in (sorry Sydneysiders).
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I heard a radio report this morning that Melbourne has overtaken Sydney as Australia’s biggest city: population 5.1 million to Sydney’s 5.04 million.
Sydney vs Melbourne? Sounds like neither to me.
Depends what population measurement used.
Significant Urban Areas - Melbourne overtook Sydney last year.
Greater Metropolitan Area - Sydney is still larger, but Melbourne is expected to overtake Sydney in this measurement towards the end of this decade.
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A similar thing was reported late last year when boundary changes were made to include Melton in Melbourne, pushing it past Sydney.
We’ll probably never see an “official” announcement on this as such as the goalposts keep moving
No you will. As I said, it was reported early last year that Melbourne overtook Sydney in the Significant Urban Area . The reason why boundaries are changing is due to Melbourne out passing Sydney in growth and new suburbs forming on the outskirts.
Regarding the Greater Metropolitan Area measurement, Melbourne is forecast to overtake Sydney by the end of this decade.
Since when was Central Coast part of Sydney? It’s not even close.
Otherwise, Geelong should be part of Melbourne.
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And this is why Sydney ‘‘still’’ takes out the Greater Metropolitan Area population measurement.
Yes it’s very dubious IMO that Central Coast is included in Greater Sydney population figures. It’s about the same distance from Sydney as Geelong is from Melbourne and Gold Coast is from Brisbane for that matter. And of the three, Gold Coast to Brisbane is far more a continuous urban area. Although there is a geographic factor as to why Central Coast isn’t more continuous with Sydney. Mandurah is included in Greater Perth too when it’s also 70km from Perth, same as Gold Coast to Brisbane.
Other factors are taken into account when determining greater metro areas like the amount of commuter traffic and the connectivity of the region as a whole, but I still find the Central Coast inclusion a bit dubious. Huge amounts of commuters also travel from Geelong to Melbourne and Gold Coast to Brisbane.
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Sydney and the Central Coast will literally always be segmented by Broken Bay (and the Hawkesbury estuary).
Melton is an interesting case. Formerly separated from Melbourne but now somewhat joined to it through the new suburbs of Rockbank, Caroline Springs, Tarneit etc. I have no problem with Melton= Melbourne, even Bacchus Marsh in the future. Is Sunbury included in the Melbourne metro? There’s still a bit of open country between it and the contiguous suburbia, which starts around Sydenham (VIC) around the 3LO masts.
(I’ve been virtually travelling around this area via Driver667 on YT)!
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The number of people who work or attend school in Sydney is statistically significant enough that it is considered part of the larger statistical area. The Central Coast has been considered statistically part of Sydney for some time.
This topic comes up all the time in this thread, the same can be said with committing to and from Melbourne from Geelong.
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According to the ABS:
The GCCSAs have been designed to provide a stable and consistent boundary that reflects the functional extent of each of Australia’s capital cities. This definition is designed to include those within the urban area of the city as well as people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, but live in small towns and rural areas surrounding the city. It is important to note that GCCSAs do not define the built up edge of the city.
GCCSAs have been created using aggregations of whole SA4s, which were designed to reflect labour markets, using the 2006 Census travel to work data. Because of this, the GCCSAs reflect the labour market of each capital city. The labour market is sometimes used as a de-facto measure of the functional extent of a city since it contains the majority of the commuting population.
~25% of the residents of the Central Coast work outside their local area (the majority of that in Sydney) compared to only ~20% of Geelong residents and ~16% of Gold Coast (again the majority being the capital city)
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I would question whether 25% of the population working outside the area really is a sufficient threshold to warrant inclusion as part of Greater Sydney (if Geelong is excluded at 20%), given that the Hawkesbury is a physical dividing barrier between the two, and also that the Central Coast is identified as a city (albeit decentralised) in it’s own right.
Fair, but we can all be thankful we don’t live in Tamworth.
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Getting back to Melbourne, I find it wild that a station like Ardeer is only serviced by V-Line diesel trains despite it being within visual distance of the Melbourne CBD.
If you were to dig deeper into the data (and look at some of the smaller areas that the ABS makes available), you’d more than likely find that this percentage increases in the southern part of the Central Coast, but because of the way the ABS compiles these capital city areas, it can’t split the Central Coast into two so it is a case of including the whole region or none.
These classifications also have real-world consequences too. The Central Coast often misses out on funding because it gets treated as both Metro and Regional depending on what definition of Sydney is used.
I’m led to believe that the Wollongong area now has a greater population percentage working in Greater Sydney than the Central Coast, but it’s not included in the GCCSA.
NSW Government has given serious consideration to effectively treating Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Central Coast, Sydney, and Wollongong as a single entity of many cities
It might identify as one (or even multiples), but it isn’t officially one - something really important to note - the official status of a City in NSW isn’t determined by size or shape, rather it’s something that is proclaimed.
Statistical Geography doesn’t necessarily conform to natural or man-made boundaries
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though 4 other state capitals make the top 20.