26.6% ▲ +18.3%
- 2011: 22.5%
- 2016: 25.2%
- 2021: 26.6%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
New South Wales · State / Territory
Language in New South Wales
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
More than a quarter of the population in New South Wales speaks a language other than English at home. This is well above the national figure of 22.3%, making the state one of the more linguistically diverse regions in the country.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
About 26.6% of people use another language at home, a figure that rose 4.1 percentage points since 2011. While English is the main language for 67.6%, others include Mandarin (3.4%), Arabic (2.8%), Cantonese (1.8%) and Vietnamese (1.5%). This diversity is reflected in the 4.5% of residents who speak little or no English, which is much higher than most other similar areas.
4.5% ▼ -0.4%
- 2016: 4.5%
- 2021: 4.5%
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 New South Wales
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in New South Wales [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ste/1/new-south-wales/topic/language