Sorry, Sydney — Melbourne is now officially Australia's biggest city

CNN  — 

Melbourne has overtaken Sydney to become Australia’s largest city by population — thanks to a technicality.

The borders of the city, which is the capital of the state of Victoria, have been redrawn to include the district of Melton, allowing Melbourne to leapfrog Sydney, CNN affiliate 9News reports.

In its 2022 population statement, Australia’s federal government said Melbourne was projected to overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest city in just under 10 years’ time, in 2031-32.

But the newly recast Melbourne has a total of about 5.8 million residents, almost 19,000 more people than Sydney, 9News added.

“It’s because more people have been moving out of Sydney, going to other parts of Australia, than have been moving in the opposite direction. Whereas in the case of Melbourne, in some years more people have moved to Melbourne than have moved out,” Nick Parr, a professor of demography at Macquarie University, explained to Sydney radio station 2GB.

“But the projections show that Sydney’s population will continue to grow, and also the Melbourne population will continue to grow,” he said, adding that immigration will “compensate” for the effects of low birth rates in both cities.