AUSTRALIAN POPULATION GRID 2017

This release presents preliminary estimated residential population (ERP) for 2017, represented as 1 km² grid cells across Australia. This grid resolution offers a measure of population density and depicts the distribution of population across the Australian landmass. The population value represented in the grid cells has been modelled from the preliminary 2017 population estimates for Statistical Area Level 1 regions in the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). Figure 1 is a population density map using the 1 km² grid.

Australia's most densely populated area in 2017 was in Melbourne near Carlton. The 1 km² grid cell covering these localities had an estimated residential population of 25,743.

Figure 2 compares the population grid for Sydney and Melbourne. It shows that Sydney had more areas in the highest density range shown in the map with 48 km² exceeding 8,000 people per square kilometre compared to Melbourne which only had 14 km² exceeding 8,000 people per square kilometre. Sydney also had larger and more widely spread areas of the second highest density class with 126 km² of between 5,000 and 8,000 people per square kilometre, while Melbourne had 51 km² in the same range. Brisbane was the only other capital city to register in these higher density categories with 9 km² between 5,000 and 8,000 people per square kilometre.


Table 1 shows the area within each Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA) under 6 population density classes, from no population to very high. These areas are calculated from the Population Grid and the classes are based on the ranges used in Figures 1 and 2. The Brisbane GCCSA had the largest area of very low population density (less than 500 people per square kilometre) at 9,557 km˛ in 2017. This highlights the spread of low density population around Brisbane and also the relatively large extent of the Brisbane GCCSA when compared with other capital cities.

	No population	Very low	Low	Medium	High	Very High
	(0)*	(Less than 500)*	(500-2000)*	(2000-5000)*	(5000-8000)*	(More than 8000)*
Sydney	6632	3936	788	834	126	48
Melbourne	2706	5271	938	1024	51	14
Brisbane	5113	9557	772	399	9	0
Adelaide	204	2362	407	277	0	0
Perth	2492	2821	723	379	0	0
Hobart	500	1065	113	16	0	0
Darwin	2148	955	50	19	0	0
Canberra	1822	282	204	52	0	0
* people per square kilometre
These population density classes have been used for analysis purposes only and are not an ABS standard classification

Please Note: This publication can be viewed in three formats:

• ESRI Grid format - for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) only.
• GeoTIFF format - for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and in some graphics software.
• PNG format - for use in any graphics software including those bundled with major operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X & iOS).

Some of the advantages the grid format provides are:

• it enables accurate comparison with other countries using grid based measures of population and population density;
• it offers greater spatial accuracy in rural regions where traditional geographies are very large; and
• it enables accurate and efficient integration of population data with other data traditionally produced in grid format such as environmental datasets.

The grid files in GeoTIFF format and ESRI Grid format are for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and are located in the Downloads tab of this publication. These GIS files are aligned to the National Nested Grid (NNG) standard for Australia.

The PNG file is also available in the Downloads tab of this publication.