33.5% ▲ +14.6%
Higher than 92% of remoteness area areas.
- 2011: 29.3%
- 2016: 32.3%
- 2021: 33.5%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Major Cities of Australia · Remoteness Area
Language in Major Cities of Australia
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
More than one in three people in Australia's major cities speak another language at home, making these urban hubs far more linguistically diverse than the rest of the country. This shift is clear as the proportion of people using a non-English language rose to 33.5% since 2011.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
English is the main language for 61.2% of residents, while others commonly speak Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese or Vietnamese. This high level of diversity is reflected in the 5.7% who speak little or no English, a figure that is a little above the national mark of 3.4%.
5.7% ▼ -1.9%
Higher than 93% of remoteness area areas.
- 2016: 5.8%
- 2021: 5.7%
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 Major Cities of Australia
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Major Cities of Australia [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ra/RA10/major-cities-of-australia/topic/language