We are Aurukun

84 per cent.

Nearly 84 in every 100 Aurukun residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Queensland.

Our population
1,095
Speak another language
917
Languages at home
4
Growth since last census
−16.7%

Our neighbourhoods run in Wik Mungkan, Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) and Dutch as readily as they do in English. 917 of us speak a language other than English at home — a higher share than almost anywhere else in the country, and the ordinary condition of daily life here rather than an exception to it.

In Queensland

#2

of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #5 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Wik Mungkan

776 speakers

Wik Mungkan is spoken by 776 of our residents at home, 70.9% of Aurukun.

Dutch

4 speakers

Dutch is spoken by 4 of our residents at home, 0.4% of Aurukun.

The languages of Aurukun

4 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
The 3 most spoken languages in Aurukun, covering 791 speakers. Area is speakers at the 2021 Census; tint is the change since 2016. Every figure is also in the table below.

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.

  1. 01
    Wik Mungkan
    776+315%
  2. 02
    Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)
    11+267%
  3. 03
    Dutch
    4
  4. 04
    Fijian
    0-100%

Fastest-growing among us

Wik Mungkan

+315.0% since last census

We share this portrait because Aurukun is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 6.9 times the Queensland figure. Services designed for the median Queensland 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.

Wik Mungkan grew 315.0% since the last census, to 776 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

1.5% of us were born overseas, across 7 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    7+133%
  2. 02
    Indonesia
    3
  3. 03
    New Zealand
    3
  4. 04
    Papua New Guinea
    3-25.0%
  5. 05
    Fiji
    0-100%
  6. 06
    Philippines
    0-100%
  7. 07
    Thailand
    0-100%

What we believe

Reported affiliation in Aurukun at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.

  1. 01
    Christianity
    680-16.0%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    341-10.0%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 1 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Aurukun 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

Aurukun
83.7%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

83.7% of Aurukun residents speak a language other than English at home, against 12.2% for Queensland 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. 83.7% is 917 residents as a share of all 1,095 of us. A further 76 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 90.7%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 90.0%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Aurukun, 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 Aurukun 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 Aurukun.