32.4% ▲ +21.1%
- 2011: 26.7%
- 2016: 29.5%
- 2021: 32.4%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Northern Territory · State / Territory
Language in Northern Territory
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
More than 32% of people in the Northern Territory now speak a language other than English at home, a figure that has risen by 5.6 percentage points since 2011. This makes the region far more linguistically diverse than the national average. While English remains the most common language, the area has a significant variety of speakers from different cultural backgrounds.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
About 32.4% of residents use a language other than English at home, which is far above the Australian figure of 22.3%. While English is spoken by 57.3% of the population, other common languages include Greek, Tagalog, and Mandarin. Around 3.9% of people speak little or no English, which is higher than most other areas and has remained steady since 2016.
3.9% ▲ +0.8%
- 2016: 3.9%
- 2021: 3.9%
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 Northern Territory
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Northern Territory [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ste/7/northern-territory/topic/language