We are Cairns

13 per cent.

About 13 in every 100 Cairns residents speak a language other than English at home, across 135 languages.

Our population
164,649
Speak another language
20,866
Languages at home
135
Growth since last census
+14.9%

21k of us — 12.7% — speak a language other than English at home, most often Japanese, Nepali and Mandarin. A share this size is easy to design around by accident, which is precisely how it gets designed out.

In Queensland

#16

of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #143 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Japanese

2,351 speakers

Japanese is spoken by 2,351 of our residents at home, 1.4% of Cairns.

Nepali

1,091 speakers

Nepali is spoken by 1,091 of our residents at home, 0.7% of Cairns.

Mandarin

1,077 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 1,077 of our residents at home, 0.7% of Cairns.

The languages of Cairns

135 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 Cairns, covering 14,273 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
    Japanese
    2,351+0.9%
  2. 02
    Nepali
    1,091+30.7%
  3. 03
    Mandarin
    1,0770%
  4. 04
    Punjabi
    1,044+21.8%
  5. 05
    Italian
    886-9.9%
  6. 06
    German
    866+0.7%
  7. 07
    Korean
    785-19.4%
  8. 08
    Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)
    778+19.0%
  9. 09
    Tagalog
    7400%
  10. 10
    Hmong
    725+20.2%

Fastest-growing among us

Malayalam

+147.9% since last census

We share this portrait because Cairns is, genuinely, not an “average” council. 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.

Malayalam grew 147.9% since the last census, to 538 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

20.1% of us were born overseas, across 134 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    6,578+6.7%
  2. 02
    New Zealand
    4,668-1.9%
  3. 03
    Papua New Guinea
    2,331+1.4%
  4. 04
    Philippines
    2,079+21.2%
  5. 05
    India
    1,814+36.7%
  6. 06
    Japan
    1,583+2.0%
  7. 07
    Germany
    1,047+7.9%
  8. 08
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    819+11.9%
  9. 09
    South Africa
    779+21.5%
  10. 10
    Thailand
    755+26.3%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    71,843-11.4%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    70,469+39.0%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    2,735+2.6%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    1,450+16.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    727+33.6%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    82-21.9%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 50 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Cairns 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

Cairns
12.7%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

12.7% of Cairns 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. 12.7% is 20,866 residents as a share of all 164,649 of us. A further 15,367 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 22.0%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 14.0%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Cairns, 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 Cairns 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 Cairns.