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Demographics

The population of Sydney in 1788 was less than 1,000. With convict transportation it almost tripled in ten years to 2,953. For each decade since 1961 the population has increased by more than 250,000. The 2021 census recorded the population of Greater Sydney as 5,231,150. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projects the population will grow to between 8 and 8.9 million by 2061, but that Melbourne will replace Sydney as Australia's most populous city by 2030. The four most densely populated suburbs in Australia are located in Sydney with each having more than 13,000 residents per square kilometre (33,700 residents per square mile). Between 1971 and 2018, Sydney experienced a net loss of 716,832 people to the rest of Australia, but its population grew due to overseas arrivals and a healthy birth rate.

The median age of Sydney residents is 37 and 14.8% of people are 65 or older. 48.6% of Sydney's population is married whilst 36.7% have never been married. 49.0% of families are couples with children, 34.4% are couples without children, and 14.8% are single-parent families.