35.6% ▲ +15.9%
Higher than 91% of urban centre areas.
- 2011: 30.7%
- 2016: 33.9%
- 2021: 35.6%
Share of people who use a language other than English at home.
Melbourne · Urban Centre
Language in Melbourne
The languages spoken in homes across the area, beyond English.
Far more people speak a language other than English at home in Melbourne than in most other areas, with 35.6% of residents doing so. This linguistic diversity has grown over the last decade and is well above the figures for both Victoria and Australia.
Languages at home
English and the largest community languages.
English is the only language spoken at home for 59.6% of people, while Mandarin is the most common other language at 4.6%. Around 5.7% of residents speak little or no English, a figure that is a little above the national average and has barely changed since 2016.
5.7% ▼ -3.3%
Higher than 92% of urban centre areas.
- 2016: 5.9%
- 2021: 5.7%
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 Melbourne
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Language in Melbourne [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ucl/UCL201001/melbourne/topic/language