Guugu Yimidhirr
677 speakers
Guugu Yimidhirr is spoken by 677 of our residents at home, 12.7% of Cook.
We are Cook
18 per cent.
About 18 in every 100 Cook residents speak a language other than English at home, across 34 languages.
- Our population
- 5,343
- Speak another language
- 950
- Languages at home
- 34
- Growth since last census
- −4.8%
950 of us — 17.8% — speak a language other than English at home, most often Guugu Yimidhirr, Kuku Yalanji and Bislama. A share this size is easy to design around by accident, which is precisely how it gets designed out.
In Queensland
#12
of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #115 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Kuku Yalanji
39 speakers
Kuku Yalanji is spoken by 39 of our residents at home, 0.7% of Cook.
Bislama
31 speakers
Bislama is spoken by 31 of our residents at home, 0.6% of Cook.
The languages of Cook
34 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.
- 01677-5.3%
- 0239+144%
- 0331
- 0427
- 0520-35.5%
- 0617+30.8%
- 0712-42.9%
- 0812
- 099+200%
- 108+33.3%
Why we publish this
17.8% of us
We share this portrait because Cook 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.
Who we are, beyond language
Where we were born
10.0% of us were born overseas, across 36 countries.
- 01England108-19.4%
- 02New Zealand95-12.8%
- 03South Africa40+90.5%
- 04Germany33-10.8%
- 05Samoa30
- 06Switzerland27+58.8%
- 07Vanuatu26
- 08Philippines23-8.0%
- 09United States of America17+30.8%
- 10Scotland17+70.0%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Cook at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity2,523-10.5%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs1,869+40.5%
- 03Buddhism39-26.4%
- 04Hinduism8-60.0%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 8 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- Hope ValeTop language — Guugu Yimidhirr60%582
- LakelandTop language — Bislama33%109
- RossvilleTop language — Kuku Yalanji10%53
- CooktownTop language — Guugu Yimidhirr7%185
- CoenTop language — Wik Mungkan5%21
- Starcke0%0
- Laura (Qld)0%0
- Shelburne0%0
- 8 suburbs in Cook. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Cook 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
- Cook
- 17.8%
- Queensland
- 12.2%
- Australia
- 21.3%
17.8% of Cook 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. 17.8% is 950 residents as a share of all 5,343 of us. A further 807 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 32.9%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 20.9%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Cook, 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 Cook 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 Cook.