How do you define a city?

Two in three Australians live in a capital city, and another 26 per cent live in regional centres. But what really defines a city in Australia?

Transcript

00:00 Two in three Australians live in capital cities and that number is only growing.

00:10 But what makes a city a city?

00:14 Well, Professor Bill Randolph from UNSW says that there's no hard and fast answer.

00:22 In days gone by, cities were considered those that had a cathedral or a town hall.

00:27 And in medieval times and earlier, it was about having a city wall.

00:32 But today in Australia, the ABS defines a major city as high-density areas with over

00:39 100,000 residents living around an urban centre.

00:43 This includes Ballarat, Bendigo, Newcastle, Townsville, Cairns and Geelong.

00:49 But urban areas within capital cities can also gain city status. Home to over 415,000

00:57 people, the city of Blacktown in Western Sydney is a densely populated urban centre.

01:04 However, some regional centres do gain city status due to their LGA classification.

01:10 These include Wagga, Dubbo, Shepparton and Bundaberg, which each have populations of

01:16 over 40,000 people. At the end of the day, we as humans tend to live close together,

01:22 whether that's in towns or in cities. And we've been doing that for centuries.

01:26 In Australia, only 2% of the population live in remote or very remote areas.

01:32 And even though our cities are ever-changing and ever-growing, so are we.

01:37 (upbeat music)

01:39 (gentle music)