Alice Springs population: how many people live in Alice Springs?

The Alice Springs Significant Urban Area had an estimated resident population of 30,875 at 30 June 2025, the highest annual estimate since 2001. The Northern Territory has two urban areas with at least 10,000 people. The other is Darwin, whose urban area had 145,019 people on the same date, making Alice Springs the smaller of the two. Alice Springs accounted for 11.7 per cent of the territory's 264,556 people and 0.11 per cent of Australia's 27,613,654 people¹.

The ABS publishes the estimate once a year, with a reference date of 30 June. The 30 June 2025 estimate is preliminary and will be revised in the next release, covering 30 June 2026, which is due for publication on 25 March 2027².

Net overseas migration was the largest component of population change in Alice Springs in 2024-25, adding 578 people. Natural increase, the excess of births over deaths, added 175 people. Net internal migration, moves to and from elsewhere in Australia, subtracted 365⁵. Together, the three components produced the town's total increase of 388 people. The figures are published for the Alice Springs council area, which has the same population as the urban area.

Net overseas migration was the largest component in each of the four years from 2021-22 to 2024-25. It added 498 people in 2021-22, 688 in 2022-23, 580 in 2023-24 and 578 in 2024-25. Natural increase fell from 287 in 2022-23 to 175 in 2024-25, as births fell from 458 to 370 and deaths rose from 171 to 195⁵.

Alice Springs recorded a net internal migration loss in each of the four years. The losses were 12 in 2021-22, 327 in 2022-23, 234 in 2023-24 and 365 in 2024-25, the largest annual loss during this period. Across the four years as a whole, net internal migration subtracted 938 people, natural increase added 986 and net overseas migration added 2,344. Together, these components increased the population by 2,392 people, from 28,483 at 30 June 2021 to 30,875 at 30 June 2025.

Alice Springs was one of six of the Northern Territory's 20 council areas to record a net internal migration loss in each of the four years. The others were Barkly, Central Desert, Darwin, East Arnhem and Roper Gulf⁵.

Alice Springs was the smaller of the two urban areas the ABS lists in the Northern Territory at 30 June 2025. The Darwin urban area had 145,019 people, about 4.7 times the Alice Springs population. The territory's remaining 88,662 people lived outside any urban area with at least 10,000 people.

Among the Northern Territory's 20 council areas, Alice Springs had the third-largest population. It ranked behind Darwin at 90,035 and Palmerston at 43,193, and ahead of Litchfield at 24,849 and Katherine at 11,282⁸.

Alice Springs accounted for 29.3 per cent of the 105,272 people living in the Northern Territory outside Greater Darwin at 30 June 2025. The share was 28.7 per cent at 30 June 2001 and fell to a low of 26.9 per cent in 2015 and 2016. It then increased in every year from 2016 to 2025.

The population outside Greater Darwin increased by 953 people, or 0.91 per cent, in 2024-25. Alice Springs accounted for 388 of this increase¹. Greater Darwin added 2,719 people (1.74 per cent) over the same year, and the territory as a whole added 3,672 (1.41 per cent).

Litchfield had the fastest growth rate among the territory's five largest council areas, at 2.2 per cent. It recorded the territory's largest net internal migration gain, at 288 people. The Alice Springs growth rate of 1.3 per cent ranked tenth among the 20 council areas.

Alice Springs recorded the territory's second-largest net overseas migration gain, at 578 people, behind Darwin at 2,235. Its net internal migration loss of 365 was the third largest, after losses of 1,602 in Darwin and 388 in Palmerston⁸.

Darwin's population data is covered in the Darwin population article.

The Alice Springs population increased by 4,026 people between 30 June 2001 and 30 June 2025, growing from 26,849 to 30,875. The 2025 population was 15.0 per cent higher than in 2001 and was the highest annual estimate since 2001.

The population fell during two periods. It declined from 26,849 at 30 June 2001 to 26,572 at 30 June 2005, a loss of 277 people. It then grew for six consecutive years, reaching 28,489 at 30 June 2011.

The population then fell for five consecutive years, reaching 26,518 at 30 June 2016. This was a decline of 1,971 people, or 6.92 per cent, from the 2011 level. The population did not exceed the 2011 figure again until 30 June 2022, when it reached 29,242. One year earlier, it was still six people below the 2011 figure, at 28,483⁴.

The population grew in every financial year from 2016-17 to 2024-25. Across these nine years, it increased by 4,357 people, or 16.43 per cent. Of Australia's 102 urban areas, 48 recorded growth in every year from 2001-02 to 2024-25.

Six urban areas had more years of decline than the nine in Alice Springs: Broken Hill declined in 23, Mount Isa in 16, Lismore and Lithgow in 15 each, Port Pirie in 14 and Whyalla in 13. Grafton, Kalgoorlie - Boulder, Moe - Newborough and Ulverstone also recorded declines in nine years⁴.

Alice Springs first reached 27,000 at 30 June 2008 and 28,000 at 30 June 2009. The population later fell below 28,000 from 2014 to 2019 and below 27,000 from 2015 to 2017. It returned to at least 28,000 at 30 June 2020. It first reached 29,000 at 30 June 2022 and passed 30,000 at 30 June 2024, when the estimate was 30,487⁴.