Adelaide, not Sydney or Melbourne, has Australia’s worst traffic gridlock.
It has just been rated as the country’s most-congested capital, with drivers spending 109 hours in rush-hour delays each year in a 4.2 per cent worsening from 2024.
Adelaide has an official 55.1 per cent congestion level according to the navigation company TomTom, which has surveyed 500 cities worldwide for its 2025 Traffic Index results, the 15th time it has compiled the stop-start statistics. It means the ‘city of churches’ has an average rush-hour speed of 25.5km/h and it takes 15 minutes to drive 6.4 kilometres.
On the global level, Adelaide ranks 50th for congestion in a dis-honour roll topped by Mexico City with 75.9 per cent, Bengaluru in India at 74.4, and Dublin in Ireland at 72.9.
Surprisingly, Australia overall ranks ahead of New Zealand in the Oceania region – with 23 per cent congestion compared to 25 per cent across the Tasman.
TomTom compiles its results by measuring how much traffic slows down on a road network compared with ideal free-flow travel times, expressed as a percentage.
Melbourne and Sydney followed Adelaide in the Australian rankings, in 64th and 166th places overall, but Gold Coast also did badly as it was ranked 106th.
Congestion in Brisbane improved in 2025, even if only by a single percentage point, defying a global slowing in 466 of the 500 surveyed cities.
Darwin had the least traffic congestion in Australia, at just 27.5 per cent, with Wollongong and Canberra also doing well.
TomTom Traffic Index 2025
1. Mexico City, Mexico, 75.9%
2. Bengalaru, India, 74.4%
3. Dublin, Ireland, 72.9%
4. Lodz, Poland, 72.8%
5. Pune, India, 71.1%
6. Lublin, Poland, 70.4%
7. Bogota, Columbia, 69.6%
8. Arequipa, Peru, 69.5%
9. Lima, Peru, 69.3%
10. Bangkok, Thailand, 67.9%
50. Adelaide, 55.1%
64. Melbourne, 52.9%
106. Gold Coast, 48.6%
166. Sydney, 43.7%’
206. Newcastle, 41.3%
222. Brisbane, 40.5%
255. Hobart, 38.2%
303. Perth, 35.9%
348. Canberra, 33.6%
374. Wollongong, 31.8%
426. Darwin, 27.5%