Townsville's 2026 population is now estimated at 186,562.In 1996, the population of Townsville was 113,112.Townsville has grown by 2,568 in the last year, which represents a 1.4% annual change.These population values and projections come from Australia urban centers over 10k series 1996-2021 via CityPopulation official attribution and World Population Review Internal Projections.
Townsville is a city located in Queensland, Australia and is the largest urban area located north of the Sunshine Coast. Townsville is the unofficial capital of North Queensland. The estimated 2014 population of Townsville is 190,000.
The estimated population of Townsville is about 190,000 people, and the population density is about 1061 people per square kilometer or 2750 people per square mile. The city proper is 54.1 square miles in area. The urban area expands the city size to 693.3 kilometers squared (267.7 square miles). Townsville also has many suburbs. The city has 43 urban suburbs, 5 suburbs on Magnetic Island, 12 suburbs in the Northern beaches, and 38 rural suburbs.
The percentage of males to females in Townsville is almost 50/50. 49.9 percent of the population is male, while 50.1 percent of the population is female. The median age of residents is 33 years while 21.1% of the population is 0-14 years of age and 9.8% of the population is over 65. 44.1% of the population is married and 39.4% were never married. That leaves 12.4% of the population that are separated or divorced and the rest are widowed.
The most common ancestry in Townsville is Australian at 30.7% followed by English at 27.4%. There is also a large Irish population at 8.7%, Scottish at 7%, and German at 4.1%. The most common country of birth is Australia at 80.2% of the population.
In Townsville, the most popular religious affiliation is Catholic at 28.1% and is followed by no religious affiliation at 21.9%. The next three most common religions are Anglican at 18.2%, Uniting Church at 6.5% and Presbyterian at 3.6%.
87.5% of residents said they speak only English in the home. 8.3% said there are two or more languages spoken in the home. The most popular second languages are Italian, Tagalog, German, Greek, and Filipino in that order.
The unemployment rate in Townsville is around 5% and 63% of residents are employed full time, 25.5% are employed part time, and 6.4% are away from work. The median weekly income for single people is $675 and the median weekly income for families is $1626.
The family composition of Townsville is 37.8% couples without children, 43.5% couples with children, 16.9% single parent families, and 1.8% families classified as other. The percentage of people living in single-family dwellings is 80.7%. People who live in Semi-detached houses and town houses comprise 5.6% of the population, while 12.6% live in apartments.
The population of Townsville is younger than the averages for both Queensland and Australia. This is partly because there is a high turnover in the population. The government services and army base mean that many of the jobs bring in short to medium term residents. There are mineworkers who live in the city for a short time and leave, and do not bring their families and move permanently to the city. These type of fly-in/fly-out mine workers, who do not relocate, can slow the development of a city. The city continues to grow at a very slow rate of around 2-3%. This rate of growth is slow, but it is still faster than the overall growth of Queensland.
City | 2026 Pop.↓ | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 4,976,762 | 1.13% |
| Melbourne | 4,928,443 | 1.41% |
| Brisbane | 2,484,138 | 1.61% |
| Perth | 2,218,366 | 1.6% |
| Adelaide | 1,299,185 | 0.84% |
| Gold Coast | 741,661 | 1.93% |
| Canberra | 523,285 | 1.28% |
| Newcastle | 361,877 | 0.74% |
| Central Coast | 343,965 | 1.1% |
| Sunshine Coast | 313,811 | 1.93% |
| Wollongong | 292,054 | 0.82% |
| Hobart | 205,884 | 0.83% |
| Geelong | 190,619 | 1.1% |
| Townsville | 186,562 | 1.4% |
| Cairns | 163,376 | 1.26% |
| Darwin | 130,746 | 1.32% |
| Ballarat | 113,156 | 1.4% |
| Toowoomba | 112,978 | 0.82% |
| Bendigo | 108,707 | 1.51% |
| Maitland | 97,446 | 1.64% |
