There is a push to change the way we compare population density around the world.

An urban planning expert says recent comparisons measure Sydney the wrong way, painting an opposite picture on population density.

A method used by the European Commission shows Sydney has an average density of 2,800 people per square kilometre, meaning it’s more densely populated than Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Demographer Mark McCrindle tells Chris Smith inaccurate measuring is to blame.

“We tend to just take the total number of people and then we take this massive Sydney basin footprint of land, which includes national parks and lots of areas where people don’t inhabit, and we just do a simple calculation.

“But if we just take the suburbs where people live and look at what’s happening we get population density.”

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