AUSTRALIAN POPULATION GRID 2018

This release presents preliminary estimated resident population (ERP) for 2018, 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 2018 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 2018 was near the northern part of the Melbourne central business district. The 1 km² grid cell covering this area had an estimated resident population of 27,303.

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 53 km² exceeding 8,000 people per square kilometre compared to Melbourne which only had 15 km² exceeding 8,000 people per square kilometre. Sydney also had larger and more widely spread areas of the second highest density class with 128 km² of between 5,000 and 8,000 people per square kilometre, while Melbourne had 56 km² in the same range. Brisbane was the only other capital city to register in these higher density categories with 13 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 9,637 km˛ in 2018. 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	6633	3917	794	839	128	53
Melbourne	2011	5943	939	1040	56	15
Brisbane	5014	9637	779	407	13	0
Adelaide	193	2373	398	286	0	0
Perth	2485	2817	731	382	0	0
Hobart	485	1078	114	17	0	0
Darwin	2159	941	53	19	0	0
Canberra	1781	324	201	54	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.