24.6% ▲ +35.8%
Higher than 86% of remoteness area areas.
- 2011: 18.1%
- 2016: 21.8%
- 2021: 24.6%
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.
Far more people use a language other than English at home in the Major Cities of Australia than in most other areas. Around 24.6% of residents speak a different language, a figure that has climbed 6.5 percentage points since 2011.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
English is the primary language for 71.2% of the population, though Mandarin is the most common other language at 3.2%. While 2.5% of people speak little or no English, this is about the same as the national figure.
2.5% ▼ -6.0%
Higher than 78% of remoteness area areas.
- 2016: 2.7%
- 2021: 2.5%
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/RA80/major-cities-of-australia/topic/language