Western Australia has been supplanted by Victoria on population growth, new figures from the bureau of statistics have revealed.

Its capital, Melbourne, has been crowned Australia’s biggest growing city, with the ABS predicting it will knock Sydney of its perch as the largest city by 2056.

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The state grew by 1.8 per cent, edging out WA (1.6 per cent) in second place and NSW and SA in shared third (1.4 per cent each).

By 2056, this may be the nation’s biggest city. Photo: Shutterstock.

“Victoria has experienced increasing population growth since 2011, with a net gain of 9,300 people from the rest of Australia in the last year alone,” ABS spokesperson Denise Carlton said in a statement.

Melbourne grew by 95,000 in the year to December, compared to Sydney’s 84,200.

Part of Victoria’s success was in attracting residents away from the other states. It plundered 2,700 people from fierce rival NSW and a further 2,100 from close neighbour SA, with Western Australia (1,400) and Queensland also contributing movers.

Greater Melbourne now houses 4.4 million residents, which will likely almost double to 8.2 million in coming decades, the report said.

Click here to see the ABS statistics in full.