Mandarin
3,440 speakers
Mandarin is spoken by 3,440 of our residents at home, 14.1% of Adelaide.
We are Adelaide
34 per cent.
Nearly 34 in every 100 Adelaide residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in South Australia.
- Our population
- 24,358
- Speak another language
- 8,368
- Languages at home
- 81
- Growth since last census
- +11.2%
One in 3 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 8,368 people, most often Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.
In South Australia
#5
of 70 South Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #59 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Cantonese
818 speakers
Cantonese is spoken by 818 of our residents at home, 3.4% of Adelaide.
Vietnamese
424 speakers
Vietnamese is spoken by 424 of our residents at home, 1.7% of Adelaide.
The languages of Adelaide
81 languages carry the conversation at home. Every one of them is spoken here.
Each block below is scaled to the number of people who speak that language at home, and tinted by how fast that community has grown since the last census.
- Grew 50%+
- 25%+
- 10%+
- Held
- Slipped
- Declined 10%+
- Not comparable
Every language, in order
Speakers at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016. Broader ABS categories such as “Chinese, nfd” are counted in our totals but left out of this list, so the percentages can exceed the sum of the languages shown.
- 013,440+6.0%
- 02818+6.2%
- 03424+79.7%
- 04317+82.2%
- 05293-3.3%
- 06236+6.8%
- 072260%
- 08211-36.4%
- 09200-10.3%
- 10145+29.5%
Fastest-growing among us
Hindi
+82.2% since last census
We share this portrait because Adelaide is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.0 times the South Australia figure. Services designed for the median South Australia resident arrive here in the wrong language. This almanac exists so that nobody writing policy about us — federal, state, corporate or media — can say they did not know.
Hindi grew 82.2% since the last census, to 317 speakers. A community growing at that rate is one whose translation needs are ahead of the last set of figures anyone commissioned.
Who we are, beyond language
Where we were born
43.5% of us were born overseas, across 106 countries.
- 01China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)3,002+4.6%
- 02England1,003+15.6%
- 03India835+81.1%
- 04Malaysia717-1.8%
- 05Hong Kong (SAR of China)525+15.9%
- 06Vietnam391+122%
- 07Philippines320+116%
- 08Korea, Republic of (South)280-10.3%
- 09Singapore2720%
- 10New Zealand217+3.8%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Adelaide at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01No religion or secular beliefs12,903+30.4%
- 02Christianity6,925+1.4%
- 03Buddhism1,046+15.7%
- 04Hinduism726+58.9%
- 05Islam645+6.3%
- 06Judaism26+333%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 2 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- AdelaideTop language — Mandarin41%7,243
- North AdelaideTop language — Mandarin17%1,125
- 2 suburbs in Adelaide. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Adelaide shaded by the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. Boundaries are ABS ASGS 2021. See every council on one map.
In context
- Adelaide
- 34.4%
- South Australia
- 16.9%
- Australia
- 21.3%
34.4% of Adelaide residents speak a language other than English at home, against 16.9% for South Australia and 21.3% nationally. Drawn from the 2021 Census.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2021, language used at home by Statistical Area Level 2, aggregated to Local Government Area. Growth compares 2021 against the 2016 Census.
How the headline share is counted. 34.4% is 8,368 residents as a share of all 24,358 of us. A further 2,032 did not state a language at all, and we do not count them as speaking one — counting every non-response as a non-English speaker would put this figure at 42.7%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 37.5%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Adelaide, it is almost certainly one of those two.
Two further caveats we would rather state than bury. Summing suburbs omits residents not allocated to one — no usual address, migratory and unincorporated areas — so national totals sit a little under the ABS published figures; the Adelaide figures on this page are unaffected. And ranked language lists exclude ABS residual categories such as “Chinese, nfd”, which are not languages anyone can order a translation in; they remain inside the headline total.
Need this community reached in its own languages? Talk to us about translation in Adelaide.