Topics
Gold Coast, 
Australia
298,750 people lived in Gold Coast in 2025. It is the 1926th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Australia.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Gold Coast's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Gold Coast grew
For every 10 people in Gold Coast in 1995, there were 42 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 552,540 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Gold Coast through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Gold Coast in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Australia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Gold Coast is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Australia in 2025, 29 in all, led by Sydney, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Gold Coast covered 175 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 37 km² of it. That is 123 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 3.6 times its size, and its people are 4.2 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, 1 lived in Gold Coast, which is 298,750 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Australia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Gold Coast's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1922 Yongcheng China299,180
- 1923 Bugama Nigeria299,022
- 1924 Semey Kazakhstan298,847
- 1925 Toulon France298,777
- 1926 Gold Coast298,750
- 1927 Novokuznetsk Russia298,733
- 1928 Fungurume Democratic Republic of the Congo298,713
- 1930 Asahikawa Japan298,481
- 1931 Baochi China298,433
In Australia, 2025
- 474 Perth1,079,374
- 476 Brisbane1,071,628
- 592 Adelaide879,249
- 1399 Point Cook404,501
- 1926 Gold Coast298,750
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Gold Coast are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Gold Coast 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