PUBLIC hostility towards Muslims is much greater in Sydney than Melbourne — by a factor of two to one — with immigrants far more dispersed across the Victorian capital, according to a major social survey.

The findings show Sydney is home to a higher percentage of people born overseas than Melbourne, but they are typically poorer and concentrated in fewer suburbs than those in the southern state.

The targets of racism in Australia have also changed — the Indian community is now most often singled out rather than the past focus on people of east Asian descent, despite official attempts in recent years to calm anger over a spate of attacks on Indian students.

The stocktake of attitudes towards immigrants in Australia's two largest cities offers a rare and fascinating insight into the community's experience of a growing national population — up 3 million in the past decade, a figure that includes births as well as the migrant intake.