Key Statistics From The 2016 Australian Census

Key Statistics From The 2016 Australian Census

Key multicultural stats from the 2016 Census June 27 release.

The Census is the most comprehensive research into diverse communities in Australia. IDENTITY, the intelligent multicultural marketing agency, has summarised key multicultural stats from the June release of the 2016 Census below, including:

  • Top languages spoken in Australia, other than English.
  • Top 35 languages ranked by low English proficiency.
  • Top 50 countries of birth in Australia.
  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Status by Age and Gender.

If you find this information useful, please share – we’re happy for everyone to use.

Top languages spoken in Australia (other than English).

4.9m people speak a language other than English in Australia according to the 2016 Census. That’s an increase of 1m since the last Census in 2011. Mandarin is now our most spoken language other than English, by a long way – almost double the next language group, Arabic.

top 5 languages spoken in Australia 2016 census

All languages recorded in the Census ranked by total Australian population. To sort by a State or Territory, click on the arrow pointers at the top of the corresponding column. For example, to find the top languages spoken in NSW, click on the arrow pointer to the right of the NSW column. For top languages spoken in Victoria, click on the pointer on the right of VIC.

RankLanguageNSWVICQLDSAWATASNTACTTotal
1Mandarin2399451917936947428780478403971216312408596711
2Arabic20082579589136449292141328293613040321728
3Cantonese14333378079249009666193399727293853280943
4Vietnamese10289610343025914190172024744212154216277400
5Italian7569411227220009291062940110967653245271597
6Greek8168311070710538229934790119132452436237588
7Tagalog/Filipino69344408312837093472558593850392995182493
8Hindi6703451241181637310107476398523646159652
9Spanish6352735494210065669104159364873273140817
10Punjabi3343556171179919306122234896702215132496
Total1,882,0021,538,746557,678274,067435,23927,26667,46186,6594,871,626
Showing 1 to 10 of 428 entries

Note, English not included, Other Territories not included.

Top 35 Languages Spoken at Home ranked by Low English Proficiency.

To sort by other variables, please click on the arrow pointers at the top of the desired variable column.

RankLanguageWellNot WellTotalNot StatedGrand Total
1Mandarin4379181554185933383372596711
2Vietnamese188801867062755061896277400
3Cantonese209203701622793611583280943
4Arabic266667518683185373186321728
5Greek197651376192352672321237588
6Italian232917349932679103690271597
7Korean7336534748108108886108997
8Spanish123821155901394111402140817
9Punjabi117346138321311731315132496
10Other Chinese Langs36340136624999928550284
Total4,009,194810,0024,819,19452,4484,871,647
Showing 1 to 10 of 35 entries

Note: top 35 language groups shown. Total all non-English includes all languages other than English.

Top 50 Countries of Birth by Age.

Note: Total All Countries include all countries of birth (not just the top 50).

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Status by Age and Gender.

0-45-1415-2425-4445-5455-6465+Total
Males37,76875,29263,28378,78831,65421,44613942322173
Females35,49671,83660,42882,47135,76223,99517012327000
Total73,265147,133123,718161,25667,41545,43830,952649,177

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will be making more data available via Table Builder next week. And even more data will be released in October.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or email us from the contact page!

Top 10 Languages Spoken in Australia – 2016 Census

Top 10 Languages Spoken in Australia – 2016 Census

The top languages spoken in Australia confirms our changing diversity.

The Australian population as at the 2016 Census was 23.4m people, compared to 21.5m in 2011, up 8.8%.  The 2016 Census data released today confirms the changing face of Australia. Italian, is now the fifth most spoken language, other than English. It was number one at the 2006 Census and number two in 2011. 

One in five Australians now speak a language other than English at home.

Growth in Asian and Indian languages are obvious. The most dramatic is Mandarin, now almost double the next largest language group, Arabic. Mandarin has grown by over 170% in the decade to 2016. The total number of Chinese speakers (Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu and others) now exceed 927,000 (our earlier prediction of 1m was pretty close!).

Top 10 Languages Australia 2016 Census

The growth is even more obvious when we graphed the growth (or decline) of the top 5 languages spoken in Australia.

Top 5 languages spoken in Australia

Languages other than English spoken at home, 2016 Census.

You’ll hear dramatic stats about the number of people born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. This is potentially misleading because it includes those born in the UK, NZ, USA and other English speaking countries.

If you’re looking at targeting people from different cultures who might speak other languages then the table below might be more relevant.

Low English proficiency Australia

The number of people who speak a language other than English at home has increased by almost 1 million to 4.9m, which is 20.8% of the Australian population. The number of people with low English proficiency has also jumped to almost 820,000.