Mandarin
2,920 speakers
Mandarin is spoken by 2,920 of our residents at home, 2.5% of Cockburn.
We are Cockburn
20 per cent.
Nearly 20 in every 100 Cockburn residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Western Australia.
- Our population
- 115,180
- Speak another language
- 23,452
- Languages at home
- 134
- Growth since last census
- +14.5%
One in 5 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 23k people, most often Mandarin, Italian and Portuguese. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.
In Western Australia
#15
of 137 Western Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #99 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Italian
2,323 speakers
Italian is spoken by 2,323 of our residents at home, 2.0% of Cockburn.
Portuguese
1,421 speakers
Portuguese is spoken by 1,421 of our residents at home, 1.2% of Cockburn.
The languages of Cockburn
134 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
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.
- 012,920+9.2%
- 022,323-5.4%
- 031,421+0.6%
- 041,411+6.7%
- 051,372-6.1%
- 06992+21.6%
- 07899+22.0%
- 08811+15.2%
- 09773+14.0%
- 10632+19.0%
Fastest-growing among us
Persian (excluding Dari)
+56.7% since last census
We share this portrait because Cockburn is, genuinely, not an “average” council. Services designed for the median Western Australia 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.
Persian (excluding Dari) grew 56.7% since the last census, to 442 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
31.8% of us were born overseas, across 136 countries.
- 01England7,475+8.3%
- 02New Zealand3,161+0.7%
- 03Philippines2,798+19.0%
- 04India2,192+25.0%
- 05South Africa1,999+13.9%
- 06Italy1,5560%
- 07China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)1,451-7.2%
- 08Malaysia1,444+23.1%
- 09Scotland1,315+9.7%
- 10Croatia1,061+2.0%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Cockburn at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity52,758-2.9%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs49,918+47.6%
- 03Buddhism2,060+16.0%
- 04Hinduism2,029+49.7%
- 05Islam1,686+52.9%
- 06Judaism66+144%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 23 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- TreebyTop language — Mandarin33%1,370
- SuccessTop language — Mandarin27%3,053
- Hammond ParkTop language — Mandarin26%1,829
- Cockburn CentralTop language — Mandarin26%404
- SpearwoodTop language — Italian23%2,600
- Aubin GroveTop language — Mandarin23%1,536
- South LakeTop language — Mandarin21%1,183
- North LakeTop language — Mandarin20%257
- BeeliarTop language — Tagalog20%1,706
- Hamilton HillTop language — Italian20%2,204
- Rottnest IslandTop language — Spanish20%33
- AtwellTop language — Mandarin19%1,726
- Lake CoogeeTop language — Italian17%813
- YangebupTop language — Portuguese16%1,243
- Coogee (WA)Top language — Italian16%822
- BanjupTop language — Mandarin16%215
- CoolbellupTop language — Mandarin15%822
- North CoogeeTop language — Italian14%514
- JandakotTop language — Mandarin13%316
- Bibra LakeTop language — Mandarin13%739
- WattleupTop language — Croatian10%54
- Garden Island (WA)Top language — French2%13
- Henderson0%0
- 23 suburbs in Cockburn. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Cockburn 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
- Cockburn
- 20.4%
- Western Australia
- 17.3%
- Australia
- 21.3%
20.4% of Cockburn residents speak a language other than English at home, against 17.3% for Western Australia 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. 20.4% is 23,452 residents as a share of all 115,180 of us. A further 5,581 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 25.2%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 21.4%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Cockburn, 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 Cockburn 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 Cockburn.