There’s something strange going on in the best-located suburbs of our biggest cities. As the national population surges, they are shrinking.

In Melbourne’s affluent east and bayside areas, a swath of suburbs had population declines between 2019 and 2023, even though the city as a whole grew by 4 per cent in that period. It was a similar story in Sydney, where the headcount shrank in districts across the eastern suburbs, lower north shore and inner west.

Illustration: Simon LetchCredit:

Inner Sydney and inner Melbourne also have a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald