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Ballarat, Victoria

The languages of Ballarat beyond English

Mandarin is the most common language after English in Ballarat, where 5.9 per cent of residents speak something else at home, according to the 2021 Census. No language other than English reaches one in 100 residents. The share nationally is at least twice Ballarat's.

Residents
112,100
Speak another language
6,648
Languages at home
104
Change since 2016
+52.9%

Which languages other than English are spoken most in Ballarat?

These three top a list of small communities.

Mandarin

902 speakers

Spoken at home by 0.8 per cent of residents.

Punjabi

714 speakers

It has more than doubled since 2016.

Malayalam

465 speakers

Between the last two censuses it has more than doubled.

What are Ballarat's five largest language communities?

Punjabi, Malayalam and Hindi have grown by more than half since 2016.

The largest five communities, beside their change on the previous census.

  1. 01
    Mandarin
    902+17.0%
  2. 02
    Punjabi
    714+182%
  3. 03
    Malayalam
    465+106%
  4. 04
    Hindi
    389+95.5%
  5. 05
    Nepali
    217+471%

How big is Ballarat's multilingual community next to Victoria?

Across Victoria, a language other than English is at least twice as common. Ballarat ranks 39th in Victoria, in the top half.

Ballarat
5.9%
Victoria
26.6%
Australia
21.3%

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

Ballarat's place on the diversity index.

How does the share change across Ballarat's suburbs?

Lucas leads, Learmonth trails, and the rest sit close between them.

Each suburb links to its own page, with the languages spoken there.

What do birthplace and religion add in Ballarat?

The largest group born overseas comes from England.

Country of birth

9.4% born overseas, across 104 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    2,427+20.1%
  2. 02
    India
    1,815+110%
  3. 03
    New Zealand
    969+31.3%
  4. 04
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    621-10.3%
  5. 05
    Philippines
    591+71.3%
  6. 06
    Netherlands
    404-19.2%
  7. 07
    Scotland
    298-1.0%
  8. 08
    Sri Lanka
    253+242%
  9. 09
    South Africa
    220+44.7%
  10. 10
    Germany
    217+4.8%

Religious affiliation

Reported affiliation, with the change since 2016.

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    54,358+43.0%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    47,571-8.4%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    1,305+122%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    870+18.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    740+89.7%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    31+158%

Data: ABS Census of Population and Housing 2021, language used at home, summed from Statistical Area Level 2 to council. Changes are against the 2016 Census.

Blank answers matter here. 5,608 residents gave none, and they're left out of the 5.9%. Count them in and it's 10.9%; drop them from the base and it's 6.2%.

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.

For material in these languages, talk to LEXIGO about translation.