We are Canterbury-Bankstown

59 per cent.

Nearly 59 in every 100 Canterbury-Bankstown residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
367,049
Speak another language
215,016
Languages at home
154
Growth since last census
+5.2%

Our neighbourhoods run in Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin as readily as they do in English. 215k 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 New South Wales

#4

of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #22 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Arabic

64,219 speakers

Arabic is spoken by 64,219 of our residents at home, 17.5% of Canterbury-Bankstown.

Vietnamese

28,240 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 28,240 of our residents at home, 7.7% of Canterbury-Bankstown.

Mandarin

18,409 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 18,409 of our residents at home, 5.0% of Canterbury-Bankstown.

The languages of Canterbury-Bankstown

154 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 Canterbury-Bankstown, covering 194,138 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
    Arabic
    64,219+6.9%
  2. 02
    Vietnamese
    28,240+11.7%
  3. 03
    Mandarin
    18,409+11.4%
  4. 04
    Greek
    17,909-6.3%
  5. 05
    Cantonese
    13,273-2.5%
  6. 06
    Bengali
    9,236+7.4%
  7. 07
    Urdu
    9,194+39.0%
  8. 08
    Italian
    4,861-19.4%
  9. 09
    Indonesian
    4,438+5.3%
  10. 10
    Nepali
    4,357+47.3%

Fastest-growing among us

Malay

+188.2% since last census

We share this portrait because Canterbury-Bankstown is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.3 times the New South Wales figure. Services designed for the median New South Wales 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.

Malay grew 188.2% since the last census, to 513 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

42.8% of us were born overseas, across 161 countries.

  1. 01
    Vietnam
    22,232+15.5%
  2. 02
    Lebanon
    21,514+8.4%
  3. 03
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    18,655+3.7%
  4. 04
    Bangladesh
    7,220+3.4%
  5. 05
    Greece
    7,178+1.4%
  6. 06
    India
    6,335+28.2%
  7. 07
    Pakistan
    5,228+8.2%
  8. 08
    Philippines
    4,714+17.3%
  9. 09
    Nepal
    4,237+49.2%
  10. 10
    Indonesia
    4,092+19.4%

What we believe

Reported affiliation in Canterbury-Bankstown at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.

  1. 01
    Christianity
    155,815-4.3%
  2. 02
    Islam
    88,131+22.0%
  3. 03
    No religion or secular beliefs
    64,699+24.7%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    22,494+5.4%
  5. 05
    Hinduism
    7,778+18.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    130+58.5%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 36 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Canterbury-Bankstown 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

Canterbury-Bankstown
58.6%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

58.6% of Canterbury-Bankstown residents speak a language other than English at home, against 25.7% for New South Wales 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. 58.6% is 215,016 residents as a share of all 367,049 of us. A further 26,552 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 65.8%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 63.1%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Canterbury-Bankstown, 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 Canterbury-Bankstown 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 Canterbury-Bankstown.