Sydney's population officially hits five million

Sydney's population has officially hit five million people after a surge in new residents in the past dozen years. Photo/Ethan Rohloff/Destination NSW

Sydney's population has officially hit five million people after a surge in new residents in the past dozen years.

But Sydney is no longer Australia's fastest-growing city, and will be overtaken by Melbourne as the country's largest metropolis in the mid-2050s if current growth rates continue, according to target="_blank">Daily Mail.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today reveal Melbourne's population grew by 2.4 per cent in 2015-16, ahead of Brisbane (1.8 per cent) and Sydney (1.7 per cent).

Melbourne had the largest population growth of all capital cities last financial year, increasing by nearly 108,000 people to hit 4.64 million.

Australia's slowest growing capital city was Adelaide, with a growth rate of less than one per cent.

The fastest growing region in Australia was the southwest of the ACT, which grew by 38 per cent.

ABS director of demography Beidar Cho said that as of June 30, 2016 there were 5,005,400 people living in the New South Wales capital, up 82,000 from the previous year.

"It took Sydney almost 30 years, from 1971 to 2000, to grow from 3 million to 4 million people, but only half that time to reach its next million," she said.

Terry Rawnsley, an economist at consultancy SGS Economics and Planning, told the Sydney Morning Herald the city's population rise is being driving by robust economic growth.

He predicted the city would reach a population of 6 million by 2028 at current growth rates.

Victoria was the fastest growing state, increasing by 2.1 per cent, followed by New South Wales and Queensland (both 1.4 per cent), the Australian Capital Territory (1.3 per cent) and Western Australia (1.0 per cent).

The Northern Territory had the slowest growth (0.2 per cent), followed by South Australia and Tasmania (both 0.5 per cent).

Australia's estimated resident population (ERP) reached 24.1 million at 30 June 2016, increasing by 337,800 people or 1.4 per cent since 30 June 2015.

The growth rate was unchanged from 2014-15.