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Persons who speak a language other than English at home, by language spoken – 2006

 

Males

Females

Persons

Proportion born in
Australia
(a)

Persons as a proportion
of population

 

’000

’000

’000

%

%

Italian

154.0

162.9

316.9

42.1

1.6

Greek

124.3

128.0

252.2

52.8

1.3

Arabic

125.0

118.7

243.7

42.9

1.2

Cantonese

115.7

128.8

244.6

21.4

1.2

Mandarin

103.3

117.3

220.6

12.6

1.1

Vietnamese

94.3

100.5

194.9

30.3

1.0

Spanish

46.6

51.4

98.0

24.4

0.5

Tagalog (Filipino)

36.3

56.1

92.3

15.0

0.5

German

34.7

40.9

75.6

19.9

0.4

Hindi

36.4

33.6

70.0

13.7

0.4

Macedonian

34.0

33.8

67.8

40.1

0.3

Croatian

31.3

32.3

63.6

34.1

0.3

Australian Indigenous languages

27.1

28.6

55.7

96.4

0.3

Turkish

27.1

26.8

53.9

42.3

0.3

Polish

23.8

29.6

53.4

21.1

0.3

Serbian

26.2

26.4

52.5

24.4

0.3

Maltese

17.8

18.7

36.5

26.5

0.2

Netherlandic

16.2

19.9

36.2

14.4

0.2

All other languages(b)

424.8

448.2

873.1

18.5

4.4

Total

1,499.0

1,602.5

3,101.5

28.8

15.6

(a) Persons whose birthplace was not stated, inadequately described, n.e.c. or at sea were excluded prior to the calculation of percentages.
(b) Excludes languages that were not stated, inadequately described, and non-verbal so described.
Source: ABS data available on request, 2006 Census of Population and Housing.

Persons who speak a language other than English at home, by proficiency in English – 2006

      Age group (years)  
     

0-24

25-44

45-64

65+  

Total

Total population speaking other than English at home

           
 

Speaks English well or very well

%

83.6

88.2

78.5

60.3

80.8

 

Does not speak English well

%

8.7

9.6

18.0

29.2

14.0

 

Does not speak English at all

%

4.3

1.1

2.5

9.2

3.5

 

Total persons (a)

’000

963.4

1008.3

753.6

421.0

3146.2

Australian-born population speaking other than English at home            
 

Speaks English well or very well

%

81.2

96.2

93.5

82.8

86.5

 

Does not speak English well

%

8.4

1.9

3.6

9.5

6.1

 

Does not speak English at all

%

6.0

0.5

1.0

3.6

4.0

 

Total persons (b)

’000

554.0

259.1

72.8

12.4

898.4

(a) Includes 56,000 people who did not state how well they spoke English.
(b) Includes 30,500 people who did not state how well they spoke English.
Source: ABS data available on request, 2006 Census of Population and Housing.

Did you know?

There are also more than 100 ethnic newspapers, ranging from modest periodicals to major weekly and daily publications in more than 40 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese and Korean. (http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/society.html)