🌍 World Alive

Sydney — UN urban centre

4,150,917

Sydney: 4,150,917 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #107 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 2139; territory: Australia (AUS). UN source workbook.

Method: Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous 1 km2 cells, density 1,500+ people/km2, total 50,000+). This is a source-defined urban centre, not a municipality or province. No association with a separate administrative entity is inferred from proximity or name.

Source centroid: -33.859, 151.079. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
19752,221,676Estimate
19802,347,920Estimate
19852,536,158Estimate
19902,715,328Estimate
19952,881,012Estimate
20002,858,429Estimate
20052,973,683Estimate
20103,321,179Estimate
20153,678,440Estimate
20204,067,000Estimate
20254,150,917Estimate
20304,272,146Projection
20354,340,983Projection
20404,402,339Projection
20454,471,506Projection
20504,554,766Projection

Largest UN urban centres · Fastest-growing urban centres

What changed during your lifetime?

Turn these figures into a private, five-scene personal world story.

Use this source record with the right definition

This page is a structured reference entry. Its sources, geographic definition and reference dates determine what the figures mean; it is not independent reporting about the causes of change. Read the accompanying explanation before comparing different places or vintages.

Why an urban centre is not a municipality →

Interpretation reviewed 12 October 2026. Underlying reference years are stated on the page; this is not a fresh census or dataset refresh.