40.0% ▲ +1654.6%
Higher than 99% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 2.3%
- 2016: 4.8%
- 2021: 40.0%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Sydney · Urban Area
Language in Sydney
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
A massive 38 percentage point jump since 2011 shows how quickly Sydney has become a multilingual hub. Now, 40% of residents use a language other than English at home, a figure far above the national average.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
While 54.7% of people speak only English, others commonly use Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese or Vietnamese. Around 6.9% speak little or no English, which is well above the Australian figure of 3.4%.
6.9% ▲ +603.2%
Higher than 99% of urban area areas.
- 2016: 1.0%
- 2021: 6.9%
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 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/sua/1031/sydney/topic/language