We are Brisbane

23 per cent.

Nearly 23 in every 100 Brisbane residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Queensland.

Our population
1,223,739
Speak another language
278,754
Languages at home
202
Growth since last census
+18.6%

One in 4 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 279k people, most often Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.

In Queensland

#11

of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #90 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

55,050 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 55,050 of our residents at home, 4.5% of Brisbane.

Vietnamese

21,521 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 21,521 of our residents at home, 1.8% of Brisbane.

Cantonese

18,320 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 18,320 of our residents at home, 1.5% of Brisbane.

The languages of Brisbane

202 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 Brisbane, covering 203,883 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
    Mandarin
    55,050+18.3%
  2. 02
    Vietnamese
    21,521+17.9%
  3. 03
    Cantonese
    18,320+9.9%
  4. 04
    Spanish
    13,792+35.0%
  5. 05
    Punjabi
    12,591+28.9%
  6. 06
    Korean
    11,477+5.5%
  7. 07
    Hindi
    10,704+10.7%
  8. 08
    Arabic
    6,923+11.3%
  9. 09
    Italian
    6,674-5.5%
  10. 10
    Gujarati
    5,642+51.2%

Fastest-growing among us

Hazaraghi

+113.3% since last census

We share this portrait because Brisbane is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.9 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.

Hazaraghi grew 113.3% since the last census, to 772 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

29.6% of us were born overseas, across 183 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    42,173+7.1%
  2. 02
    New Zealand
    41,580+2.7%
  3. 03
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    36,559+15.5%
  4. 04
    India
    34,863+27.1%
  5. 05
    Vietnam
    16,237+20.3%
  6. 06
    Philippines
    13,926+28.3%
  7. 07
    South Africa
    13,913+22.2%
  8. 08
    Taiwan
    10,112+5.4%
  9. 09
    Korea, Republic of (South)
    9,902+0.6%
  10. 10
    Malaysia
    8,376+7.5%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    535,612-5.7%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    514,901+41.4%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    35,960+44.3%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    33,642+8.1%
  5. 05
    Islam
    27,756+25.4%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    1,217+8.4%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 184 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Brisbane 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

Brisbane
22.8%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

22.8% of Brisbane 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. 22.8% is 278,754 residents as a share of all 1,223,739 of us. A further 54,722 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 27.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 23.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Brisbane, 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 Brisbane 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 Brisbane.