Topics
Brisbane, 
Australia
1,071,628 people lived in Brisbane in 2025. It is the 476th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Australia.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Brisbane grew
For every 10 people in Brisbane in 1975, there were 182.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2020 and 2025.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Brisbane through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Brisbane in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Australia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 29 cities in Australia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Sydney. The ringed dot in colour is Brisbane; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Brisbane covered 460 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 120 km² of it. That is 112 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 14.1 times its size, and its people are 18.2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Australia
Its share of Australia
Of every 100 people in Australia in 2025, 4 lived in Brisbane, which is 1.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Australia; the coloured squares live in Brisbane. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 472 Yerevan Armenia1,089,209
- 473 Kaifeng China1,087,088
- 474 Perth1,079,374
- 475 Khulna Bangladesh1,074,134
- 476 Brisbane1,071,628
- 477 Zhangjiagang China1,068,192
- 478 Sofia Bulgaria1,067,136
- 479 Rostov-on-Don Russia1,065,880
- 480 Leeds United Kingdom1,065,607
In Australia, 2025
- 107 Sydney4,150,917
- 127 Melbourne3,639,893
- 474 Perth1,079,374
- 476 Brisbane1,071,628
- 592 Adelaide879,249
- 1399 Point Cook404,501
- 1926 Gold Coast298,750
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Brisbane are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Brisbane publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries