40.7% ▲ +14.2%
Higher than 91% of urban centre areas.
- 2011: 35.7%
- 2016: 39.2%
- 2021: 40.7%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Sydney · Urban Centre
Language in Sydney
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
Just over half of the people in Sydney speak only English at home, though the area is far more linguistically diverse than the rest of the country. This is one of the most multilingual areas in the nation, with 40.7% of residents using a language other than English.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
The share of people using another language at home rose to 40.7% since 2011, which is far above the national figure of 22.3%. This diversity is reflected in the common use of Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese and Vietnamese, while 7.0% of residents speak little or no English.
7.0% ▼ -1.5%
Higher than 94% of urban centre areas.
- 2016: 7.2%
- 2021: 7.0%
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/ucl/UCL101001/sydney/topic/language