Sydney's population has topped the 5 million mark after adding a million people in just 16 years.

It took the city almost 30 years, from 1971 to 2000, to grow from 3 million to 4 million people but only half that time to pile on its next million.

Official Australian Bureau of Statistics population figures released on Thursday said the population of Greater Sydney, which includes the Blue Mountains and Central Coast, reached 5,005,400 at the end June 2016.

That was an increase of almost 83,000 on the previous year, and the city's fifth largest annual population increase in absolute terms since 1901.