By Oyintari Ben
Following a border modification, Melbourne has surpassed Sydney as the most populous city in Australia for the first time since the 19th-century gold rush.
Sydney has proudly treasured the honour for more than a century.
However, due to the fast-increasing population on Melbourne’s periphery, Melton has been included in the city’s boundaries.
According to the most recent official estimates from June 2021, Melbourne has 4,875,400 people, which is 18,700 more than Sydney.
The “significant urban area” of a city is defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as all-linked suburbs with a population of more than 10,000.
Sydney Morning Herald said that the revised boundary was “a technicality” and that Melbourne now has more residents than Sydney due to the incorporation of Melton into Melbourne in the most recent population categorization.
Proud Sydney residents will cite the ABS’s finding that Sydney stayed larger when comparing the greater Sydney and Melbourne regions in June 2021.
According to the ABS, greater regions of a city take into consideration its “functional area” and include people who frequent or work in the city but may reside in nearby minor towns and rural areas.
Greater Melbourne, however, is expected to surpass Greater Sydney in 2031-32, according to the federal government.
According to demographer Liz Allen of the Australian National University, migration from outside has played a significant role in Melbourne’s rapid expansion.
Dr Allen observed that Melbourne has a reputation for embracing diversity, in contrast to Sydney, which has a “historical hangover” from a time when “it didn’t want to be seen as anything other than white.”
It is also desirable for immigrants to settle since it offers educational and employment opportunities on par with Sydney while historically being less expensive than the harbourside city.
Melbourne has previously had the distinction of being Australia’s largest city.
Melbourne grew quickly and surpassed Sydney in population until 1905 due to the gold rush that occurred in the late 19th century and caused a migration of people to the state of Victoria.
