Population density change in Australia’s main capital cities 2011–2021

The settlement patterns of Australian cities have changed substantially over the last century and continue to evolve. This paper visualises the spatio-temporal dynamics of this evolution in each major capital city area. Using census population data, this paper examines changes in population density across concentric distance bands in Australia’s five largest capital cities between 2011 and 2021. The analysis extends earlier work covering 1981–2011 and applies a consistent distance-based framework to reduce the difficulties created by changes to census geography. The results identify spatially uneven population density change within and between the five cities. The analysis describes changes in aggregate population density by distance from the city centre.