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Australia's Population and Economic Trends: Melbourne Poised to Overtake Sydney, Oil Prices Rise
Australian Major City Population Shifts
According to the latest population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), major Australian cities are experiencing population growth. Currently, Sydney remains the largest city with 5,638,800 residents, but Melbourne is catching up with 5,435,600 people. Notably, Melbourne's population growth rate of 2.0% is higher than Sydney's 1.4%, suggesting Melbourne could soon become Australia's largest city. Experts point to house prices as a key factor in this slowed growth. The total population of all capital cities increased by 1.8% to 18,750,900, while regional Australia's population grew by 1.1% to 8,862,800.
International and Domestic Market Trends
Global markets showed mixed performance. The UK stock market saw a strong gain of 1.6%, and the US Dow Jones Index was slightly higher by 0.1%. In contrast, the Hong Kong market declined by 0.1%, and Japan's market fell by 0.7%. The Australian domestic market, represented by the All Ordinaries, rallied before midday but then slowly slipped away, closing with a 0.3% gain. BHP remained steady at $50.39. Xero surged 6.5% to $75.12, and NAB rose 0.5% to $41.44. Conversely, CommBank dropped 0.6% to $167.70, and Reece fell 4.0% to $13.26.
Commodities, Fuel Prices, and Construction Index
In the commodities market, Brent crude oil prices rose 1.5% to $127.08 per barrel, demonstrating significant volatility. Gold prices increased by 1.1% to $4,560 per ounce, and silver rose 2.7% to $71.91 per ounce. Iron ore prices remained steady at $106.32 per tonne. These rising oil prices have impacted fuel costs: the national average for unleaded petrol decreased by 0.7 cents to 258.2 cents per liter, but diesel national average rose by 1.4 cents to 323.8 cents per liter. Meanwhile, the Crane Index showed a total of 838 construction cranes across Australia. Sydney saw a 41% decrease but still leads with 346 cranes. The Gold Coast recorded a 9% increase to 75 cranes, surpassing Brisbane, which saw an 8% decrease to 64 cranes.
*Source: YouTube: ABC Australia (2026-03-31)*
