Which is bigger, Sydney or Toronto?

Question

Which is bigger, Sydney or Toronto?

Answer 1

I think you need to clarify which Toronto you are talking about.  Toronto on Lake Macquarie in N.S.W. Australia or Toronto, Canada.

Answer 2

sydney

Answer 3

Sydney has 4.22 million residents & is about 20 times the size of Toronto whoes population in 2.7 million.

Sydney has beaches, mountains, massive river systems.

Toronto has the Niagra falls!

Answer 4

Sydney has over four million people crammed from the ocean to the mountains. Nice place if you like company.

Answer 5

Strictly comparing city borders, Sydney is far, far smaller than Toronto.  The City of Sydney contains  mere 165,000 people and is a small area of 25 km^2 on the south side of Port Jackson.  The City of Toronto, by contrast, is 630 km^2 and contains 2.5 million people.

Of course, the City of Sydney is a small Local Government Area of NSW, and there are about 37 of these local government areas which are generally considered part of Greater Sydney, extending from Penrith in the west to the ocean, and north to south from Hornsby to Sutherland.  This metropolitan area has a population estimated at around 4.3 million in 2006.

Toronto, by contrast, is also surrounded by cities considered to be in its metropolitan area, which include the Regional Municipalities of York, Halton, Peel, and Durham.  (These include the 'cities' of Mississiauga and Burlington to the southwest, Pickering and Ajax to the northeast, and Richmond Hill and Markham to the northwest.  (Lake Ontario is southeast.)  This metropolitan is called the Greater Toronto Area, and is a contiguous urban area without gaps (though it does contain some rural areas on its edges).  It had a population estimate of 5.6 million in 2006.

This Greater Toronto Area has an area of 7125 km^2; whereas Greater Sydney has an area of 12144 km^2.

As far as government-designated cities go, Toronto is far larger; however, as far as the metropoliatan area is concerned, Sydney holds the advantage.  (Again, this is government-defined and in both cases contain much rural land.  I could not find the land area of the urban areas for both cities.)  However, Toronto has a much bigger population.

Note that the City of Hamilton is not considered part of the Greater Toronto Area, despite being an urban area directly contiguous with Burlington (and therefore with the rest of Toronto). It has an urban population of just over 500,000, and a urban+rural population of just under 700,000, making Toronto even larger if it is included.  Some definitions of the GTA stretch from Barrie in the north to Hamiltion and to Oshawa in the east.

Also note that as far as visitors are concerned, Sydney is far better connected via mass transit, unlike Toronto in which each municipality maintains its own transit service.  In Toronto the train and bus routes do not go further west than Etobicoke nor further east than Scarborough, and taking intercity transit is the only way to move across municipal borders.  By contrast, Sydney's 37 local government areas are connected by the same system (which is oddly disconnected from their rail system), and Greater Sydney exhibits much greater cohesiveness as a result.

In short, by strict definitions Toronto is far bigger, and by the looser definitions Sydney is greater in area but remains lower in population.

Answer 6

I'm pretty sure it's Sydney...

Hope this helps!