22.3% ▲ +22.5%
- 2011: 18.2%
- 2016: 20.8%
- 2021: 22.3%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Australia · Australia
Language in Australia
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
More than 22% of people now speak a language other than English at home, reflecting a steady increase across Australia. This shift is driven by a 4.1 percentage point rise in non-English language use since 2011, creating a more linguistically diverse population.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
While English remains the main language for 72% of the country, Mandarin is the most common second language at 2.7%. Despite the rise in different languages spoken, the share of people who speak little or no English has barely changed since 2016, sitting at 3.4%.
3.4% ▼ -2.1%
- 2016: 3.5%
- 2021: 3.4%
Share of people who use another language at home and speak English not well or not at all. No 2011 figure — that census only asked proficiency of overseas-born residents.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Australia
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Australia [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/aus/AUS/australia/topic/language