The chart above shows the population of each urban area with a population over 500,000. The urban areas have been normalized so as to avoid any inconsistencies with how cities and their metropolitan areas are defined by their governments. Each urban area has similar characteristics making this the definitive method with which to compare cities across various countries. All urban areas with over 500,000 people in Oceania are in Australia or New Zealand.
Findings
- The difference between the urban area with the greatest population, Sydney, and the urban area with the least, Gold Coast, is 3,933,000 people.
- Sydney has 7.10 times the population that Gold Coast does.
- The median population of urban area with a minimum population of 500,000 in Oceania is 1,978,000 people and the mean 2,351,142.86 people.
Caveats
- Data is from 2020.
- The methodology for how these urban areas have been defined can be found in the source link below. As of this writing this is the most reliable way to compare urban areas throughout the world.
- Some of these urban areas span several states, and the state that is being used here is the one where the core of the urban area is located. For instance, Milan's urban area spans both Italy and Switzerland, but since the core of the urban area is in Italy it would be listed as an Italian urban area and not a Swiss one.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest whole.
Details
Only two of the 25 Oceanian states have urban areas with at least 500,000 people. Of these, Nigeria has six and New Zealand has one.
Of the 7 urban areas with a population over 500,000, 6 have a population of over 1 million. Three have a population of more than 2 million, and two have a population of more than 4 million.
Australia has the largest mean population in its urban areas over 500,000 people with a mean of 2,520,833 people distributed among its six urban areas. New Zealand has the second largest mean population in its urban areas over 500,000 people with a mean of 1,333,000 people distributed among its one urban area.
American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna do not have any urban areas with a population over 500,000 inhabitants.
Sources
Demographia. 2021. "Demographia World Urban Areas: 16th Annual Edition." Accessed March 9, 2021. http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf.