Malay
363 speakers
Malay is spoken by 363 of our residents at home, 61.6% of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
We are Cocos (Keeling) Islands
65 per cent.
Nearly 65 in every 100 Cocos (Keeling) Islands residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Other Territories.
- Our population
- 589
- Speak another language
- 381
- Languages at home
- 2
- Growth since last census
- +3.5%
Our neighbourhoods run in Malay and Spanish as readily as they do in English. 381 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 Other Territories
#1
for share of residents speaking a language other than English at home, of 3 Other Territories councils — a ranking Cocos (Keeling) Islands has held through successive censuses. #17 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Spanish
6 speakers
Spanish is spoken by 6 of our residents at home, 1.0% of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
The languages of Cocos (Keeling) Islands
2 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.
Why we publish this
64.7% of us
We share this portrait because Cocos (Keeling) Islands is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.6 times the Other Territories figure. Services designed for the median Other Territories 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.
Who we are, beyond language
Where we were born
7.5% of us were born overseas, across 6 countries.
- 01Malaysia25+19.0%
- 02Singapore7+133%
- 03England5+66.7%
- 04Argentina3
- 05New Zealand3-50.0%
- 06Indonesia0-100%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Cocos (Keeling) Islands at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Islam386-4.7%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs86+10.3%
- 03Christianity29-9.4%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 2 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- Home IslandTop language — Malay82%366
- West IslandTop language — Malay10%15
- 2 suburbs in Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Cocos (Keeling) Islands 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
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- 64.7%
- Other Territories
- 40.0%
- Australia
- 21.3%
64.7% of Cocos (Keeling) Islands residents speak a language other than English at home, against 40.0% for Other Territories 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. 64.7% is 381 residents as a share of all 589 of us. A further 97 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 81.2%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 77.4%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Cocos (Keeling) Islands, 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 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 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 Cocos (Keeling) Islands.