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Brisbane, Queensland

What Brisbane speaks at home

Brisbane has no single dominant second language: about 279,000 people spoke a language other than English at home at the 2021 Census, Mandarin most often. That's 148 languages with a community of ten or more. The share speaking another language at home is 1.9 times the share for Queensland.

Residents
1,223,739
Speak another language
278,754
Languages at home
202
Change since 2016
+18.6%

Which three languages are most common in Brisbane?

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.

Mandarin

55,050 speakers

That's one in 20 residents.

Vietnamese

21,521 speakers

Used at home by one in 60 residents.

Cantonese

18,320 speakers

About 1.5 per cent of all residents.

How does Brisbane compare with Australia as a whole?

The share speaking another language is close to the national share. Brisbane's share is the highest of the 77 councils in Queensland.

Brisbane
22.8%
Australia
21.3%
Queensland
12.2%

Share of residents speaking a language other than English at home, by the same method for every area.

Compare Brisbane with every council on the diversity index.

Which languages lead in Brisbane, and how have they changed?

Ten rows at a time, largest first. Anything the ABS couldn't pin to a single language is counted in the totals, not here.

  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%

What does Brisbane's language mix look like?

  • Grew 50%+
  • 25%+
  • 10%+
  • Held
  • Slipped
  • Declined 10%+
  • Not comparable
The 18 most spoken languages in Brisbane, covering 203,883 speakers. Block size follows speaker numbers; colour follows the five-year change. Every figure is also in the table below.
  • Grew 50%+
  • 25%+
  • 10%+
  • Held
  • Slipped
  • Declined 10%+
  • Not comparable
The 18 most spoken languages in Brisbane, covering 203,883 speakers. Block size follows speaker numbers; colour follows the five-year change. Every figure is also in the table below.

What's the fastest-growing language in Brisbane?

Fastest-growing language

Hazaraghi

+113.3% since 2016

With about 770 speakers now, Hazaraghi has more than doubled since 2016.

How do Brisbane's suburbs compare?

Stretton is highest, at more than three in five residents; Shorncliffe is lowest.

Open any suburb for its own language breakdown.

Where were Brisbane's residents born?

England is the most common overseas birthplace.

Country of birth

29.6% 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%

Religious affiliation

Reported affiliation, 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%

Where is Brisbane on the language map?

The shading shows how many residents speak a multicultural languageany language other than English at home, on ABS ASGS 2021 boundaries. Compare Brisbane with its neighbours on the full map.

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.

The headline 22.8% counts only residents who named a language other than English. 54,722 people left the question blank; treat every blank as another language and the figure is 27.3%, while measuring only those who answered gives 23.8%.

Ranked lists skip broad categories such as "Chinese, nfd", which stay in the totals. National figures are summed from suburbs and sit a touch under the ABS release.

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

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