We are Fairfield

69 per cent.

Nearly 69 in every 100 Fairfield residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
205,200
Speak another language
142,477
Languages at home
125
Growth since last census
+3.4%

Our neighbourhoods run in Vietnamese, Arabic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic as readily as they do in English. 142k 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

#1

for share of residents speaking a language other than English at home, of 128 New South Wales councils — a ranking Fairfield has held through successive censuses. #14 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Vietnamese

43,564 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 43,564 of our residents at home, 21.2% of Fairfield.

Arabic

19,176 speakers

Arabic is spoken by 19,176 of our residents at home, 9.3% of Fairfield.

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

16,282 speakers

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is spoken by 16,282 of our residents at home, 7.9% of Fairfield.

The languages of Fairfield

125 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 Fairfield, covering 130,865 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
    Vietnamese
    43,564+8.5%
  2. 02
    Arabic
    19,176+24.6%
  3. 03
    Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
    16,282+21.6%
  4. 04
    Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
    8,442+28.9%
  5. 05
    Cantonese
    7,599-9.9%
  6. 06
    Khmer
    6,952-2.3%
  7. 07
    Spanish
    4,800-21.8%
  8. 08
    Mandarin
    4,723-7.2%
  9. 09
    Italian
    3,889-23.2%
  10. 10
    Serbian
    3,364-8.8%

Fastest-growing among us

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic

+28.9% since last census

We share this portrait because Fairfield is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.7 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.

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic grew 28.9% since the last census, to 8,442 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

54.8% of us were born overseas, across 141 countries.

  1. 01
    Vietnam
    33,761+10.8%
  2. 02
    Iraq
    24,975+32.8%
  3. 03
    Cambodia
    7,459+1.6%
  4. 04
    Syria
    5,774+145%
  5. 05
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    3,737-5.8%
  6. 06
    Italy
    2,970-14.3%
  7. 07
    Lebanon
    2,628+13.5%
  8. 08
    Philippines
    2,266-2.7%
  9. 09
    New Zealand
    2,142-20.5%
  10. 10
    Laos
    1,731-8.6%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    104,435+2.1%
  2. 02
    Buddhism
    41,253+1.1%
  3. 03
    No religion or secular beliefs
    30,610+21.7%
  4. 04
    Islam
    12,830+12.1%
  5. 05
    Hinduism
    1,208-13.8%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    29+123%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 26 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Fairfield 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

Fairfield
69.4%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

69.4% of Fairfield 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. 69.4% is 142,477 residents as a share of all 205,200 of us. A further 14,233 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 76.4%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 74.6%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Fairfield, 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield.