37.4% —
Higher than 95% of capital city areas.
- 2016: 35.8%
- 2021: 37.4%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Greater Sydney · Capital City
Language in Greater Sydney
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
Nearly 38% of people in Greater Sydney speak a language other than English at home, making it one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the country. This high level of variety means that most residents regularly interact with people from different cultural backgrounds in their daily lives.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
While 57.3% of people use only English, Mandarin (5.0%), Arabic (4.2%), Cantonese (2.8%), and Vietnamese (2.2%) are also common. This diversity is far above the national figure of 22.3%, and the proportion of people using another language has risen since 2016. Around 6.4% of residents speak little or no English, which is a little above the national figure of 3.4%.
6.4% ▼ -1.1%
Higher than 97% of capital city areas.
- 2016: 6.5%
- 2021: 6.4%
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 Greater Sydney
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Greater Sydney [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/gccsa/1GSYD/greater-sydney/topic/language