Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Australia
Australia: Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents was 29.5% in 2020. ▲ Rising
Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Australia, 1950–2020
Source: European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
Australia recorded 29.5% for share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in 2020. That is the highest value across all 15 years on record.
That represents a change of up 5.3% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Australia peaked at 29.5% in 2020 and was at its lowest, 15.0%, in 1950.
Australia ranks 39th of 180 countries on this measure, in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 15 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 20.6% | 15.0% | 26.1% | 2 |
| 1960s | 26.7% | 26.5% | 26.9% | 2 |
| 1970s | 28.1% | 27.9% | 28.3% | 2 |
| 1980s | 28.6% | 28.5% | 28.7% | 2 |
| 1990s | 28.4% | 28.2% | 28.5% | 2 |
| 2000s | 27.1% | 27.1% | 27.2% | 2 |
| 2010s | 28.3% | 28.0% | 28.7% | 2 |
| 2020s | 29.5% | 29.5% | 29.5% | 1 |
Countries ranked near Australia
More reference data data for Australia
- Spring temperature anomalies -0.4864 °C (2026)
- Summer temperature anomalies 0.8615 °C (2026)
- Temperature anomalies by month 1.13 °C (2026)
- Universal right to vote in practice 2 (2025)
- Autumn temperature anomalies 0.0026 °C (2025)
- Winter temperature anomalies 0.4713 °C (2025)
- Consumer price index 148.46 2010 = 100 (2025)
- Universal right to vote 2 (2025)
- Competitive elections 1 (2025)
- Men's universal right to vote 1 (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Australia?
- Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Australia was 29.5% in 2020, according to European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Australia?
- The highest recorded value was 29.5% in 2020.
- What is the lowest share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Australia?
- The lowest recorded value was 15.0% in 1950.
- How does Australia rank for share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents?
- Australia ranks 39th out of 180 countries with data for 2020.
- Is share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents rising or falling in Australia?
- Over the last ten years it is up 5.3%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Australia data come from?
- The figures come from European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 15 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Percentage of the total population living in cities with 1 million or more people. City boundaries are defined using a consistent global approach based on satellite imagery and population data.