Greater Sydney

Greater Sydney Region
New South Wales
Greater Sydney Region; New South Wales
Population	5,231,147 (GCCSA); 5,521,887 (broadest definition); (2021; 1st);
Time zone	Austraian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) (UTC+10:00)
LGA(s)	Several
State electorate(s)	Several
Federal division(s)	Several

Greater Sydney is the most populous metropolitan area in Australia and Oceania. It is located in the state of New South Wales, and encompasses the Sydney city metropolis itself (the state capital of New South Wales) and her surrounding regions. As the name implies, it covers a ‘greater’ area than what most people would typically consider Sydney stretching from the Hawkesbury River to the Northern Beaches regions in the north, to the Blue Mountains in the west, and the Wollondilly, Campbelltown, and Sutherland regions in the south.^[2]^[3]

Under the NSW Greater Cities Commission (formally the Greater Sydney Commission), the Greater Sydney Region along with Newcastle, the Central Coast, and Wollongong, will constitute a Sandstone Mega-region that will make-up 70% of the NSW population and 25% of the national population.^[4]

Definitions

In its broadest definition, Greater Sydney covers the city of Sydney in addition to four neighbouring regions: the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury, Macarthur and Wollondilly.^[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Greater Sydney was defined as the city of Sydney itself as well as the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong (including both the City of Wollongong in the north and the City of Shellharbour in the south).^[2]

Greater Sydney Districts

The Greater Sydney Region Plan defines the five districts that form the Greater Sydney metropolitan area as follows^[5] –

Greater Sydney Districts
Western City	Central City	Eastern City	North District	South District
Blue Mountains	Blacktown	Bayside	Hornsby	Georges River
Hawkesbury	Cumberland	Burwood	Hunters Hill	Canterbury–Bankstown
Penrith	Parramatta	Canada Bay	Ku–ring–gai	Sutherland
Camden	The Hills	Inner West	Lane Cove
Campbelltown		Randwick	Northern Beaches
Fairfield		Strathfield	Mosman
Liverpool		Woollahra	Willoughby
Wollondilly		Waverley	Ryde
		City of Sydney	North Sydney

Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area

The Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA) is the definition of Greater Sydney used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It covers the following level-four statistical areas:^[1]

Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury
Blacktown
Central Coast
City and Inner South
Eastern Suburbs
Inner South West
Inner West
Northern Beaches
North Sydney and Hornsby
Outer South West
Outer West and Blue Mountains
Parramatta
Ryde
South West
Sutherland

Therefore, the Sydney GCCSA covers all of Sydney in addition to the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, the Hawkesbury and Macarthur. However, it does not include the Illawarra.^[1]