Popular

NAATI certified translationTranslation servicesMulticultural communicationLanguagesLanguage MapContact

95th of 542 local government areas for language diversity

Alice Springs' languages and how they're changing

The 2021 Census found about 5,800 people in Alice Springs speaking a language other than English at home, with Punjabi and Malayalam out in front. Alice Springs' share trails the share for Darwin. It's a community that grew fast between the last two censuses.

Residents
25,399
Speak another language
5,788
Languages at home
105
Change since 2016
+40.6%

Which communities in Alice Springs have grown since 2016?

Among the five biggest languages, Punjabi, Mandarin and Nepali have grown by more than half since 2016. The total speaking a language other than English at home rose by more than a quarter between the two censuses.

  1. 01
    Punjabi
    421+173%
  2. 02
    Mandarin
    269+65.0%
  3. 03
    Tagalog
    284+32.1%
  4. 04
    Hindi
    177+9.3%
  5. 05
    Malayalam
    414-2.6%
  6. 06
    Filipino
    174-6.5%

Who are Alice Springs' largest language communities?

By number of speakers, these three lead.

Include First Nations languagesShowing multicultural languagesLEXIGO works in multicultural communication. First Nations languages are optional to display and are not counted in the multicultural rankings.

Punjabi

421 speakers

Between the last two censuses it has more than doubled.

Malayalam

414 speakers

That's one in 60 residents.

Tagalog

284 speakers

Its speaker count has grown by more than a quarter since 2016.

Has Alice Springs overtaken the Northern Territory?

Alice Springs' share is under the share for the Northern Territory, though not by much. Only two councils in the Northern Territory rank higher.

Alice Springs
22.8%
Northern Territory
32.1%
Darwin
29.4%

Same method throughout, so the gap between the bars is the real gap.

The full diversity index, with Alice Springs highlighted.

What's the full language ranking for Alice Springs?

Counts are people who speak the language at home; the chip is their change since 2016. Catch-all ABS groups aren't listed.

  1. 01
    Punjabi
    421+173%
  2. 02
    Malayalam
    414-2.6%
  3. 03
    Tagalog
    284+32.1%
  4. 04
    Mandarin
    269+65.0%
  5. 05
    Nepali
    223+278%
  6. 06
    Hindi
    177+9.3%
  7. 07
    Filipino
    174-6.5%
  8. 08
    Spanish
    123+105%
  9. 09
    Nuer
    114+470%
  10. 10
    Sinhalese
    97+6.6%

How do Alice Springs' suburbs compare?

The Gap tops the list, but the spread across 19 suburbs is narrow.

Pick a suburb to see its languages in full.

Which countries were Alice Springs' residents born in?

After Australia, most residents born overseas came from India.

Country of birth

24.0% born overseas, across 84 countries.

  1. 01
    India
    952+46.0%
  2. 02
    New Zealand
    863-1.0%
  3. 03
    United States of America
    689+3.9%
  4. 04
    England
    594-10.0%
  5. 05
    Philippines
    572+24.1%
  6. 06
    Nepal
    231+279%
  7. 07
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    175+157%
  8. 08
    South Africa
    169+28.0%
  9. 09
    Zimbabwe
    167-6.7%
  10. 10
    Sri Lanka
    136+54.5%

Religious affiliation

Reported affiliation, with the change since 2016.

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    11,118+36.4%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    10,607-6.8%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    631+72.9%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    371-10.6%
  5. 05
    Islam
    243+35.8%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    32+129%

How does Alice Springs look on the map?

Alice Springs on the Language Map, shaded for residents who speak a multicultural languageany language other than English at home (ABS ASGS 2021 boundaries). View all councils.

ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021: language used at home, by Statistical Area Level 2, rolled up to Local Government Area. Change is measured from 2016.

Blank answers matter here. 1,941 residents gave none, and they're left out of the 22.8%. Count them in and it's 30.4%; drop them from the base and it's 24.7%.

Two caveats: summing suburbs leaves out residents with no usual address, so national totals land a little under ABS published figures, and ranked lists leave out broad ABS categories that don't name a language.

Reuse these figures under CC BY 4.0 with credit to LEXIGO Language Map.

Planning material for residents here? Start a conversation about translation.