Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's most populous city, and is also the most populous city in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

. In the 2021

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, 5,231,147 persons declared themselves as residents of the Sydney Statistical Division–about one-fifth (20.58%) of Australia's total population. With a population density of 2037 people per square kilometre, the urban core has population density five times that of the greater region.{{https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/1GSYD , work=

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

, date=10 August 2021, accessdate=14 July 2022, {{cite web, publisher=

, title=3218.0 – Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2014–15: Media Release Sydney on target to Take Five, url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/28F51C010D29BFC9CA2575A0002126CC?OpenDocument#NSW, date=30 March 2016, accessdate=27 October 2016, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728200642/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/28F51C010D29BFC9CA2575A0002126CC?OpenDocument#NSW, archive-date=28 July 2017, url-status=dead Sydney is the most densely populated city in Australia and is also the busiest city in Australia. The median age of Sydney residents was 37 years, and households comprised an average of 2.7 members."2032.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Australia in Profile -- A Regional Analysis, 2001"
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004-01-16

History

{{See also, History of Sydney {, class="wikitable mw-collapsible" style="float:right; clear:left; margin:10px; text-size:60%; text-align:right;" , - ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3", Sydney
population by year , - , 1796 , , 2,953 , , style="text-align:center;", {{cite web, url=http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3105.0.65.0012006?OpenDocument, title=3105.0.65.001 - Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006, publisher=

, date=23 May 2006, accessdate=21 November 2011Table 1. Population by sex, states and territories, 31 December 1788 onwards , - , 1828 , 10,815 , rowspan="7" , , - , 1833 , 16,232 , - , 1836 , 19,729 , - , 1841 , 29,973 , - , 1846 , 38,358 , - , 1851 , 44,240 , - , 1856 , 53,358 , - , 1911 , , 629,503 , , style="text-align:center;" rowspan="9" , {{cite web, url=http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3105.0.65.001, title=Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008, publisher=

, date=5 August 2008, accessdate=21 November 2011 , - , 1954 , , 1,863,217 , - , 1961 , , 2,183,231 , - , 1971 , , 2,807,828 , - , 1981 , , 3,204,696 , - , 1991 , , 3,672,855 , - , 1996 , , 3,881,136 , - , 2001 , , 4,128,272 , - , 2006 , , 4,281,988 , - , 2011 , , 4,627,345 , , , - , 2016 , , 4,823,991 , , , - , 2021 , , 5,231,147 , , European settlement in Sydney began in 1788, and in 1800 Sydney had around 3,000 non-indigenous inhabitants. It took time for the city's population to grow–in 1851 its population was only 39,000, compared with 77,000 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The subsequent

gold rushes A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

in Victoria caused the population of Melbourne to increase rapidly, while the lesser gold rushes in New South Wales had a less profound effect on the population of Sydney. GreatSynagogue2

Sydney overtook Melbourne as Australia's most populous city in the early twentieth century, and reached the million inhabitants milestone around 1925. The opening of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

helped pave the way for further urban development north of

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

. Post-war immigration and a

baby boom A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often ca ...

helped the population reach 2 million by 1962. Sydney remained Australia's

most populous city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the city proper, cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or th ...

throughout the 20th century, and is projected to retain this position for much of the 21st century.{{cite web, url=http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3222.0, title=3222.0 – Population Projections, Australia, 2006 to 2101, publisher=

, date=4 September 2008, accessdate=21 November 2011 At the August 2021 Australian census, Sydney's population reached 5 million people.

Density

Sydney is particularly noted for its low

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

, due to its history. Surrounded by land that was considered unowned by the city's founders, early Sydney enjoyed relatively low

land value Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the process of developing an opinion of value for real property (usually market value). Real estate transactions often require appraisals because they occur infrequently and every prop ...

s. Coupled with successive governments' willingness to release new land on the city's outskirts for further development, this history has given Sydney a low-density self-image.

Multiculturalism

{, class="wikitable" style="float:right;" , + Country of birth (2021){{Cite web, url=https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/1GSYD, title=2021 Greater Sydney, Census Community Profiles | Australian Bureau of Statistics, website=Abs.gov.au, access-date=2 July 2022 ! Birthplace{{refn, group="N", In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

and the Special Administrative Regions of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

are listed separately.!! Population , - ,

, , 2,970,737 , - ,

, , 238,316 , - ,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, , 187,810 , - ,

, , 153,052 , - ,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, , 93,778 , - ,

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, , 91,339 , - , New Zealand , , 85,493 , - , Lebanon , , 61,620 , - , Nepal , , 59,055 , - , Iraq , , 52,604 , - , South Korea , , 50,702 , - , Hong Kong SAR , , 46,182 , - , South Africa , , 39,564 , - , Italy , , 38,762 , - , Indonesia , , 35,413 , - , Malaysia , , 35,002 , - , Fiji , , 34,197 , - , Pakistan , , 31,025 Most immigrants to Sydney between 1840 and 1930 were

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:{{refn, group="N", As a percentage of 4,920,815 persons who nominated their ancestry at the 2021 census. {{columns-list, colwidth=12em, *

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

(21.8%) *

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

(20.4%){{refn, group="N", The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry are part of the

Anglo-Celtic Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from British and Irish people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of Great Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, ...

group. *

(11.6%) *

(7.2%) *

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

(5.6%) *

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

(4.9%) *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

(4.3%) * Lebanese (3.5%) *

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

(2.7%) *

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

(2.6%) *

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

(2.5%) *

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(2.2%) *

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

(1.4%) * Nepalese (1.4%) *

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

(1.4%){{refn, Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry. *

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Malte ...

(1.1%) At the 2021 census, there were 2,260,410 people living in Sydney that were born overseas, accounting for 43.2% of the population Sydney, above Vancouver (42.5%), Los Angeles (37.7%), New York City (37.5%), Chicago (20.7%), Paris (14.6%) and Berlin (13%). Only 31.0% of the population had both parents born in Australia. Sydney has the eighth-largest immigrant population among world metropolitan areas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are

and the

. 42.0% of people in Sydney speak a language other than English at home with

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

(5.0%),

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

(4.2%),

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

(2.8%),

(2.2%) and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

(1.5%) the most widely spoken. 1.7% of the population, or 90,939 people, identified as

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

(

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

and

Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...

) in 2021.{{refn, group="N", Of any ancestry. Includes those identifying as

. Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry. Sydney has been a hub of a number of migrant communities, such as the Lebanese, Fijian, Korean and Nepalese.{{cite web, url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/communityprofile/1GSYD?opendocument, title=2016 Census Community Profiles - Greater Sydney, publisher=

, accessdate=18 March 2018 Well over half of Australia's 25,000-strong Nepalese community, for example, is concentrated in Sydney. Seven out of every ten Lebanese migrants in Australia live in Sydney. The

Ghanaian Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

community has been noted as being quite visible in Sydney, with the number of Ghanaian churches being unusually large considering the relatively small number of Ghanaians in Australia. Furthermore, the suburb of Fairfield in the

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...

area, is an

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

of Assyrian Christians,{{Census 2016 AUS, id=SSC11477, name=Fairfield (State Suburb), accessdate=27 June 2017, quick=on where they are the largest ethnic group in the suburb and also in the surrounding areas of Fairfield Heights,

Prairiewood Prairiewood is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 34 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Pr ...

and Greenfield Park. There is a

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

community in Sydney.

Religion

At the 2006 Census, the most common responses for religion were

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(29.2%),

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

(16.5%),

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

(4.8%) and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(4.4%). 14.1% declared no religious affiliation.{{Census 2006 AUS, id=UCL171400, name=Sydney (Urban Centre/Locality), accessdate=23 November 2011, quick=on, map=yes 10.4% left the question blank, 3.7% were

Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, 1.7% were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 0.9% were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. The 2011 Census most common responses were Catholic, (28.3%), Anglican (14.7%), Islam (5.3%) and Eastern Orthodox (4.6%). 17.5% declared no religion.{{Cite web, url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/UCL101001?opendocument&navpos=220, title = 2011 Census QuickStats: Sydney In 2016, the most common responses for religion in Greater Sydney were Catholic 25.1%, No Religion, so described 24.6%, Anglican 12.0%, Not stated 8.8% and Islam 5.3%.{{cite web , url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/1GSYD?opendocument , title=2016 Census QuickStats Greater Sydney , author= , date=2017 , website=Australian Bureau of Statistics , publisher=Australian Government , access-date=5 July 2017, In the 2021 Census, the most common religion responses were No Religion 30.3%, Catholic 23.1%, Anglican 9.2% and Islam 6.3%. 6.2% of people did not answer the question.

Notes

{{reflist, group=N

References

{{reflist, 30em {{Sydney Sydney