Mandarin
12,755 speakers
Mandarin is spoken by 12,755 of our residents at home, 9.1% of Hornsby.
We are Hornsby
35 per cent.
Nearly 35 in every 100 Hornsby residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.
- Our population
- 139,531
- Speak another language
- 48,534
- Languages at home
- 121
- Growth since last census
- +23.6%
One in 3 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 49k people, most often Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.
In New South Wales
#16
of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #56 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Cantonese
5,868 speakers
Cantonese is spoken by 5,868 of our residents at home, 4.2% of Hornsby.
Korean
3,255 speakers
Korean is spoken by 3,255 of our residents at home, 2.3% of Hornsby.
The languages of Hornsby
121 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.
Fastest-growing among us
Kannada
+83.7% since last census
We share this portrait because Hornsby is, genuinely, not an “average” council. 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.
Kannada grew 83.7% since the last census, to 349 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
38.6% of us were born overseas, across 133 countries.
- 01China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)10,529+30.0%
- 02India7,207+44.3%
- 03England5,320-3.7%
- 04Korea, Republic of (South)2,652+6.2%
- 05Hong Kong (SAR of China)2,562+21.7%
- 06Philippines2,173+29.3%
- 07New Zealand1,899-0.6%
- 08Iran1,853+27.6%
- 09South Africa1,852+7.5%
- 10Malaysia1,804+13.5%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Hornsby at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity64,388-8.8%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs51,979+32.2%
- 03Hinduism9,527+59.8%
- 04Buddhism4,596+14.2%
- 05Islam2,705+39.9%
- 06Judaism307+6.6%
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.
- WaitaraTop language — Mandarin62%5,066
- HornsbyTop language — Mandarin50%10,961
- CherrybrookTop language — Mandarin48%9,083
- AsquithTop language — Mandarin43%2,676
- Pennant HillsTop language — Mandarin35%2,616
- BeecroftTop language — Mandarin35%3,527
- North EppingTop language — Mandarin33%1,496
- Cheltenham (NSW)Top language — Mandarin31%659
- ThornleighTop language — Mandarin31%2,736
- NormanhurstTop language — Mandarin28%1,461
- Dural (Hornsby - NSW)Top language — Mandarin27%2,115
- Mount ColahTop language — Mandarin25%1,975
- WestleighTop language — Mandarin23%1,029
- Hornsby HeightsTop language — Mandarin19%1,160
- Mount Kuring-GaiTop language — Mandarin18%308
- BerowraTop language — Mandarin13%631
- BerrileeTop language — Russian10%32
- GalstonTop language — Italian9%284
- Berowra HeightsTop language — Mandarin8%430
- Arcadia (NSW)Top language — Italian8%104
- MarootaTop language — Italian8%73
- FiddletownTop language — Italian8%22
- CowanTop language — Korean6%39
- Brooklyn (NSW)Top language — Gujarati5%37
- Dangar IslandTop language — Spanish5%14
- Laughtondale0%0
- 26 suburbs in Hornsby. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Hornsby 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
- Hornsby
- 34.8%
- New South Wales
- 25.7%
- Australia
- 21.3%
34.8% of Hornsby 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. 34.8% is 48,534 residents as a share of all 139,531 of us. A further 4,006 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 37.7%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 35.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Hornsby, 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 Hornsby 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 Hornsby.