CALD Communications Guide: Reaching Australia's Diverse Communities

Australia is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse countries in the world. Over 7.5 million people living here were born overseas, more than 5.8 million speak a language other than English at home, and the population represents over 300 distinct ancestries from 190 countries of birth. For organisations in government, health, education and community services, communicating effectively with this diverse population isn't optional — it's core business.

This guide covers what CALD means, why it matters, and — most importantly — how to build communications that actually reach Australia's diverse communities. Whether you're developing a public health campaign, translating government services, or engaging multicultural audiences for the first time, this is the practitioner's reference for getting CALD communications right.

What does CALD mean?

CALD stands for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse. It's a term used primarily in Australian government, health, education and community services to describe individuals and communities whose cultural backgrounds and languages differ from the English-speaking Anglo-Australian majority. CALD specifically refers to people who are not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and whose ancestry is from places other than England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales. The term encompasses people born overseas in non-English-speaking countries and those who speak a language other than English at home — though it extends beyond language alone to include cultural traditions, religious practices, values and heritage.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) uses four primary indicators to measure CALD status: country of birth, main language other than English spoken at home, proficiency in spoken English, and Indigenous status. According to the 2021 Census, 27.6% of Australians were born overseas, and 22.8% speak a language other than English at home. When you include second-generation Australians — those born here with at least one parent born overseas — more than half the population (51.5%) has a direct connection to a culture or country beyond Australia.

It's worth noting that CALD is a bureaucratic and policy term, not a label that people use for themselves. Individuals from diverse backgrounds are far more likely to identify with their specific cultural heritage — as Vietnamese-Australian, as Punjabi-speaking, as a member of the Iraqi community — than as "CALD." This distinction matters when you're creating communications intended to resonate with specific communities rather than a generic multicultural audience.

If you're new to the term, our article on what CALD stands for and how to engage your business culturally provides a practical starting point.

From NESB to CALD: how Australia defines diversity

Australia's approach to defining its multicultural population has evolved considerably since the post-war migration waves that first transformed the country's demographic landscape. For decades, the standard term was NESB — Non-English Speaking Background. By the 1990s, NESB was increasingly seen as reductive. It lumped together vastly different communities under a single deficit-based label, defined people by what they lacked (English) rather than what they brought (cultural and linguistic richness), and failed to distinguish between first-generation migrants and their Australian-born children.

In response, the Cultural and Language Indicators Pilot Study (CLIP) was initiated to develop a more nuanced set of variables for measuring diversity. Following years of research and consultation, the ABS introduced the CALD framework in the late 1990s to replace NESB — a shift intended to acknowledge both the cultural and linguistic dimensions of Australia's diversity rather than reducing everything to language proficiency alone.

More recently, the terminology conversation has evolved further. The Diversity Council Australia (DCA) has introduced the term CARM — Culturally and Racially Marginalised — for contexts specifically addressing racism and racial inequality. The DCA's position is that CALD remains appropriate for describing diversity in a broad sense, but that discussing racism requires language that names the experience more directly. The Australian Government Style Manual still accepts CALD for specialist audiences but recommends "multicultural communities" in general public-facing communications, and encourages writers to be specific wherever possible — referring to "the Vietnamese-Australian community" rather than "CALD communities."

For practitioners, the practical takeaway is this: CALD remains the standard working term in government procurement, tender documents, policy frameworks and service delivery. It's the term your stakeholders search for, the term that appears in RFPs, and the term used in reporting frameworks. Understanding its limitations doesn't mean abandoning it — it means using it thoughtfully and being more specific when the context allows.

CALD Australia by the numbers

The scale of Australia's cultural and linguistic diversity is often underestimated. The 2021 Census painted a picture of a country where diversity is the norm, not the exception.

Population overview:

  • 27.6% of Australians (over 7.5 million people) were born overseas
  • 22.8% (5.8 million people) speak a language other than English at home
  • 51.5% were either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas
  • Over 400 languages are spoken across the country
  • The population represents 300+ distinct ancestries from 190 countries of birth

Top 10 languages spoken at home (other than English):

What the headline numbers don't reveal is how dramatically the composition of Australia's CALD population is shifting. Languages like Punjabi and Hindi are among the fastest growing, driven by strong migration from the Indian subcontinent. Meanwhile, European community languages like Italian and Greek are in gradual decline as first-generation post-war migrants age — though demand for interpreting and translated aged care services in these languages is actually increasing as those communities navigate the aged care system.

Geographic concentration also matters. Sydney has the highest proportion of overseas-born residents of any Australian capital, followed by Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. But even within cities, CALD populations are concentrated in specific areas — western Sydney, Melbourne's south-east, and Perth's northern corridor each have distinct community profiles that influence which languages and cultural contexts are relevant for local service delivery.

For a deeper look at the data, see our analysis of the most common languages spoken in Australia and our ABS Census CALD snapshot.

Who needs to communicate with CALD audiences?

If your organisation serves the Australian public, you serve CALD communities — whether you've built a strategy for it or not. But some sectors have an especially acute need for effective CALD communications.

Government and public sector agencies communicate policies, programs and services that affect every Australian. From tax information and electoral communications to emergency alerts and public health messaging, government content must be accessible to people with limited English proficiency. Many state and federal agencies have formal obligations under multicultural frameworks and language services policies to provide information in community languages.

Health and medical organisations face some of the highest stakes. Informed consent, medication instructions, mental health resources, chronic disease management programs and health promotion campaigns all require clear, culturally appropriate communication. Research consistently shows that CALD communities experience poorer health outcomes partly due to language barriers and culturally misaligned health messaging.

Community and social services — including settlement services, family violence support, disability services, aged care and child protection — work directly with some of the most vulnerable members of CALD communities. Effective communication in these contexts can be the difference between someone accessing support and falling through the gaps.

Education institutions communicate with parents and families who may have limited English but are deeply invested in their children's learning. School newsletters, enrolment information, parent-teacher communications and student support services all benefit from multilingual approaches.

Legal and justice settings require precise, certified communication. Court documents, victim support resources, immigration information and legal rights notices must be translated accurately and certified to appropriate standards — typically NAATI certification in Australia.

Local government sits at the intersection of all these sectors, delivering everything from planning notifications and council services to community consultation and emergency management at the level closest to residents.

How to communicate with CALD communities: a practical framework

Effective CALD communications is not a single activity — it's a process. Translation is one part of it, but only one part. The organisations that communicate most effectively with diverse communities follow a structured approach that moves from understanding through to delivery and evaluation. Here's the framework.

1. Understand your audience

Every effective CALD communication starts with knowing who you're trying to reach. This sounds obvious, but it's where most organisations cut corners — defaulting to "top 10 languages" lists without interrogating whether those languages are actually the ones spoken by the communities their services are designed for.

Start with data. The ABS Census provides language, country of birth and ancestry data down to the local government area and suburb level. Map this against your service catchment to identify which CALD communities live in the areas you serve and which languages they speak at home. State and territory multicultural commissions also publish demographic profiles and settlement data that can sharpen your understanding.

Then go beyond the numbers. A "Chinese community" includes Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka speakers, each with distinct cultural contexts and communication preferences. Newly arrived refugees from Myanmar have fundamentally different needs and media habits than second-generation Vietnamese-Australians. Age, gender, digital literacy, migration pathway and time in Australia all shape how people access and respond to information.

Community consultation and co-design are the most reliable ways to understand these nuances. Working directly with community leaders, cultural organisations and community members — before you start creating content — ensures your communications are grounded in how people actually receive and process information, not assumptions about how they should.

2. Write for accessibility

Before any content is translated, it needs to be written clearly in English. Poorly written source content produces poor translations — and if the English version is dense with jargon, complex sentence structures and assumed knowledge, the translated version will inherit those problems.

Plain English should be the baseline for all CALD-facing communications. Plain English is a communication style where the wording, structure and design are clear enough that the reader can find what they need, understand it, and act on it. This means using short sentences, active voice, common words, logical structure and avoiding acronyms, idioms and jargon. If you must use a technical term, define it on first use.

Easy English goes further. It was originally developed for people with intellectual disabilities but is widely used for audiences with very low English literacy, including some recently arrived migrants and refugees. Easy English uses simplified grammar, short sentences, minimal punctuation, clear layout and images or icons to support comprehension. It's appropriate when your audience includes people who may struggle even with well-written plain English — for example, settlement service information for newly arrived humanitarian entrants.

The key distinction: Plain English assumes a literate reader who can navigate a document or website independently. Easy English assumes the reader may need visual support and significantly simplified language to understand the core message. Choosing between them depends on who you're communicating with and what you know about their literacy levels.

3. Translate with accuracy and cultural context

Translation is where most organisations enter the CALD communications process — and where many stop. But the quality and approach to translation matters enormously.

Professional human translation by native speakers of the target language remains the standard for any content where accuracy, nuance and trust matter. This includes government communications, health information, legal documents, educational materials and any content that people will rely on to make decisions about their lives. Machine translation and AI tools are improving rapidly, but they still lack the cultural understanding, contextual judgment and quality assurance that professional translators provide — particularly for community languages where training data is limited.

Certification matters in formal and regulated contexts. In Australia, NAATI certification is the national standard for translation and interpreting accreditation. Government agencies, legal institutions and many health services require NAATI-certified translations for official documents. Beyond NAATI, organisational certifications like ISO 17100 for translation quality provide additional assurance that the translation process itself meets international standards.

Community validation adds a layer that certification alone can't provide. A translation can be linguistically accurate and still miss the mark culturally — using formal register when a casual tone is needed, employing terms that carry unintended stigma, or structuring information in a way that doesn't align with how the community processes it. Working with community members to review and validate translated content before publication catches these issues. At LEXIGO, we work with a Native Community Partnerships Panel to ensure that translated content doesn't just read correctly — it resonates.

Transcreation goes beyond translation entirely. For marketing campaigns, creative content and any communication where emotional impact matters as much as informational accuracy, transcreation adapts the message, tone and creative approach for each cultural context rather than translating words. A public health campaign that uses humour to engage English-speaking audiences might need an entirely different emotional register to resonate with Arabic-speaking communities.

For a comprehensive overview of translation approaches, standards and what to look for in a provider, see our Translation Services Guide.

4. Create culturally resonant content

The most effective CALD communications are not translated English content — they're content designed for the target community from the outset. This shift in approach, from translation-first to community-first, is what separates adequate CALD communications from genuinely impactful ones.

This means involving community members and cultural consultants in the content development process, not just the review stage. It means considering whether the format itself is appropriate — a written fact sheet may be less effective than an in-language video for communities with strong oral traditions or lower print literacy. It means using imagery that authentically represents the target community, not generic stock photography of "diverse people."

It also means understanding cultural context that shapes how messages are received. Attitudes to mental health, family decision-making structures, relationships with authority and government, experiences of stigma, and cultural approaches to health and wellbeing all influence whether your message lands or falls flat. A domestic violence campaign that centres individual empowerment may not resonate with communities where family and collective identity are paramount — not because the message is wrong, but because the framing doesn't connect.

Multilingual video production, in-language social media content, community radio partnerships and co-created print materials are all tools for creating content that meets communities where they are, in formats they engage with. Our Authenticity Advantage book explores the principles of culturally authentic communication in depth.

5. Engage through trusted channels

Even perfectly crafted, culturally resonant content fails if it doesn't reach the intended audience. Distribution strategy is the final — and frequently overlooked — element of effective CALD communications.

CALD communities access information through channels that often differ significantly from the English-speaking mainstream. Ethnic and in-language media — community newspapers, multilingual radio stations, in-language digital publications — remain powerful channels with dedicated, engaged audiences. SBS, community radio stations and local ethnic media outlets provide reach into communities that mainstream media simply doesn't penetrate.

Digital channels are equally important but require specificity. Chinese-Australian communities may be more reachable via WeChat and Weibo than Facebook. WhatsApp groups are a primary information-sharing channel for many South Asian and Middle Eastern communities. Community Facebook groups — often moderated by community leaders — function as trusted information hubs. Understanding which platforms each community actually uses is essential.

Community leaders, elders, religious leaders and cultural organisations function as trusted intermediaries. Information shared through these channels carries credibility that institutional communications often lack — particularly for communities with experiences of government distrust related to their migration history. Partnering with these gatekeepers, rather than bypassing them, dramatically increases the likelihood of your message being received and acted on.

In-person engagement remains powerful for complex or sensitive topics. Community forums, focus groups, information sessions at cultural centres and presence at community events create opportunities for two-way communication that no digital channel can replicate. For topics like aged care, disability services, family violence support and health screening, face-to-face engagement facilitated by bilingual community workers is often the most effective approach.

Common mistakes in CALD communications

After working with government agencies, health organisations and enterprises across Australia on CALD communications, we see the same mistakes repeatedly. Avoiding them saves time, budget and — most importantly — ensures your communications actually reach the communities they're designed for.

Assuming translation is the whole job. Translation converts words from one language to another. CALD communications requires understanding the audience, adapting the message, choosing the right format and distributing through effective channels. Translation is one step in a multi-step process.

Using machine translation for community-facing content. AI and machine translation tools are useful for internal comprehension and high-volume, low-risk content. They are not appropriate for health information, government communications, legal documents or any content where accuracy and cultural sensitivity matter. The cost of a mistranslation in these contexts — in trust, in health outcomes, in legal liability — far exceeds the cost of professional translation.

Treating all speakers of a language as one community. Mandarin speakers from mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore have different cultural contexts, communication preferences and media habits. Arabic speakers from Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan and Syria have distinct experiences and needs. Language is a starting point for segmentation, not the endpoint.

Translating content but distributing it through English-only channels. If your translated health fact sheet is only available on an English-language website that requires navigating English menus to find it, you've created a resource that the people who need it most can't access. Distribution must match the audience.

Not involving community members in development. Content developed without community input — however well-intentioned — risks using inappropriate imagery, triggering cultural sensitivities, adopting the wrong tone or simply missing the point. Community consultation is not a nice-to-have; it's a quality assurance mechanism.

Defaulting to "top 10 languages" without local analysis. National language statistics don't reflect your specific service catchment. The language needs in western Sydney are different from those in regional Queensland. Use local ABS data to identify the languages and communities relevant to your area.

Creating content that's too long or complex, even in-language. Translating a 20-page English document into 10 languages doesn't help if the document was too long and complex in English. Simplify and shorten source content before translating — it improves quality and reduces cost.

Measuring the impact of CALD communications

Most organisations can tell you how much they spent on CALD communications. Far fewer can tell you whether those communications worked. Building measurement into your CALD strategy from the start ensures you can demonstrate value, identify what's working and improve over time.

Track reach by language and community, not just total impressions. Aggregate numbers hide whether you're actually reaching the communities that need the information most. Break down digital analytics, media reach and distribution data by language and channel to see where your communications are landing — and where the gaps are.

Monitor service uptake by CALD demographics. If your translated materials are designed to increase health screening, service registration or event attendance, measure whether uptake among the target CALD communities changed after the campaign. This requires your service data to capture CALD demographic indicators — country of birth and language spoken at home as a minimum.

Use multilingual feedback mechanisms. Surveys, feedback forms and evaluation tools should be available in the same languages as the content they're evaluating. English-only feedback tools systematically exclude the voices of the communities you're trying to reach.

Conduct qualitative community research. Numbers tell you what happened; community conversations tell you why. Post-campaign focus groups and community consultations provide insight into whether messages were understood, whether they felt relevant and culturally appropriate, and what could be improved.

Resources and further reading

For more on specific topics covered in this guide, explore these resources from across our site:

External references:

Ready to reach Australia's diverse communities?

LEXIGO works with government agencies, health organisations and enterprises across Australia to plan, translate, create and deliver communications that reach CALD communities with clarity and cultural authenticity. From certified translation across 170+ languages to multicultural campaign strategy, community engagement and in-language content production — we help organisations communicate with confidence.