60.5% ▲ +12.8%
Higher than 99% of suburb / locality areas.
- 2011: 53.6%
- 2016: 61.5%
- 2021: 60.5%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Sydney · Suburb / Locality
Language in Sydney
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
More than 60% of people in Sydney speak a language other than English at home, a figure far above the national average. This makes the city one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the country, where English is the primary language for only about a third of residents.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
Mandarin is the most common non-English language spoken here at 12.4%. This high level of diversity is reflected in the 11.4% of people who speak little or no English, which is well above the 3.4% seen across Australia.
11.4% ▼ -13.6%
Higher than 99% of suburb / locality areas.
- 2016: 13.2%
- 2021: 11.4%
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 Sydney
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Sydney [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sal/SAL13730/sydney/topic/language