Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Sometime today Melbourne’s population will tick over the 5 million mark.

Australia’s fastest growing city last year added 125,424 people.

This is the equivalent of adding one new Darwin.

The population of Melbourne, Australia’s fastest growing city, is today (Monday, August 27) due to reach the five million milestone, just three weeks after Australia’s population hit the 25 million mark.

Melbourne last year added 125,424 people which is the largest annual increase of any city in Australia’s history. It is the equivalent of adding one new Darwin to Melbourne each year.

Melbourne, based on the current growth rate, will add 132,000 to its population this year.

Demographers McCrindle, analysing Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers, say this is a larger increase than the population gains of the next 30 largest Australian cities combined.

The only city in Australia growing faster than Melbourne is the neighbouring city of Geelong, which grew by 2.71% in the last year.

Geelong isn’t the only regional city being fed by the overflow of Melbourne’s population growth. Other regional cities in Victoria are also growing faster than the national regional growth average such as Ballarat (1.9%), Bendigo (1.6%), and Albury/Wodonga (1.5%).

Based on the current population growth rate of Melbourne, it will hit the six million mark in 2025, the same year that Sydney will reach that milestone.

Melbourne will then overtake Sydney to be Australia’s largest city in 2026. Based on the current growth rate, Melbourne will reach seven million in 2031 and eight million in 2037 (with Sydney not reaching eight million until 2040).

Victoria is also Australia’s fastest growing state. Last year the state added 143,400 people which is larger than the growth of NSW, SA, TAS, NT and ACT combined.

While Victoria has just over a quarter of Australia’s population, it currently accounts for more than a third (37%) of Australia’s annual population growth.

Victoria also accounts for 35% of Australia’s Net Overseas Migration and 29% of Australia’s natural increase.

Unlike most other states and territories, Victoria has all three factors contributing to its growth; Net Overseas Migration, Natural Increase and Net Interstate Migration.

Only Queensland is gaining more people from the other states than Victoria.

New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia are losing more people than they are gaining from the other states.

Population growth rates by state:

Source: McCrindle

Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join

Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.