We are Brimbank

57 per cent.

Nearly 57 in every 100 Brimbank residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.

Our population
191,075
Speak another language
108,678
Languages at home
147
Growth since last census
−1.4%

Our neighbourhoods run in Vietnamese, Greek and Punjabi as readily as they do in English. 109k 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 Victoria

#2

of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #23 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Vietnamese

35,986 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 35,986 of our residents at home, 18.8% of Brimbank.

Greek

4,558 speakers

Greek is spoken by 4,558 of our residents at home, 2.4% of Brimbank.

Punjabi

4,340 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 4,340 of our residents at home, 2.3% of Brimbank.

The languages of Brimbank

147 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 18 most spoken languages in Brimbank, covering 86,338 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
    Vietnamese
    35,986+14.4%
  2. 02
    Greek
    4,558-12.7%
  3. 03
    Punjabi
    4,340-22.3%
  4. 04
    Arabic
    4,245+0.8%
  5. 05
    Macedonian
    4,225-7.9%
  6. 06
    Maltese
    4,010-19.2%
  7. 07
    Cantonese
    4,003-2.4%
  8. 08
    Italian
    3,785-22.9%
  9. 09
    Tagalog
    2,909-5.0%
  10. 10
    Croatian
    2,814-16.0%

Fastest-growing among us

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

+169.0% since last census

We share this portrait because Brimbank is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.1 times the Victoria figure. Services designed for the median Victoria 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.

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic grew 169.0% since the last census, to 963 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

46.7% of us were born overseas, across 148 countries.

  1. 01
    Vietnam
    25,355+16.8%
  2. 02
    India
    8,224-11.0%
  3. 03
    Philippines
    5,756+1.0%
  4. 04
    Malta
    4,057-9.1%
  5. 05
    North Macedonia
    2,928
  6. 06
    Italy
    2,736-12.3%
  7. 07
    New Zealand
    2,507-20.7%
  8. 08
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    2,087-10.8%
  9. 09
    Greece
    1,941-10.0%
  10. 10
    Croatia
    1,940-11.2%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    93,343-6.8%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    41,139+25.1%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    21,501+2.8%
  4. 04
    Islam
    12,955+14.5%
  5. 05
    Hinduism
    6,030+7.4%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    310%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 20 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Brimbank 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

Brimbank
56.9%
Victoria
26.6%
Australia
21.3%

56.9% of Brimbank residents speak a language other than English at home, against 26.6% for Victoria 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. 56.9% is 108,678 residents as a share of all 191,075 of us. A further 12,475 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 63.4%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 60.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Brimbank, 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 Brimbank 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 Brimbank.