Arabic
22,588 speakers
Arabic is spoken by 22,588 of our residents at home, 9.4% of Hume.
We are Hume
48 per cent.
Nearly 48 in every 100 Hume residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.
- Our population
- 241,294
- Speak another language
- 116,357
- Languages at home
- 140
- Growth since last census
- +34.6%
Arabic, Turkish and Punjabi are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 116k of us — 48.2% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.
In Victoria
#5
of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #37 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Turkish
14,818 speakers
Turkish is spoken by 14,818 of our residents at home, 6.1% of Hume.
Punjabi
12,631 speakers
Punjabi is spoken by 12,631 of our residents at home, 5.2% of Hume.
The languages of Hume
140 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.
- 0122,588+38.3%
- 0214,818+10.2%
- 0312,631+150%
- 048,393+52.2%
- 057,556+17.6%
- 065,418+110%
- 074,820-15.5%
- 083,978+49.2%
- 093,910+24.6%
- 103,111+247%
Fastest-growing among us
Nepali
+246.8% since last census
We share this portrait because Hume is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.8 times the Victoria figure. Services designed for the median Victoria 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.
Nepali grew 246.8% since the last census, to 3,111 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
38.3% of us were born overseas, across 148 countries.
- 01India16,366+91.1%
- 02Iraq15,503+45.3%
- 03Turkey7,311+18.3%
- 04Lebanon4,248+21.7%
- 05Pakistan3,837+90.4%
- 06Sri Lanka3,825+24.8%
- 07Syria3,739+168%
- 08New Zealand3,728+12.4%
- 09Philippines3,404+33.3%
- 10Italy3,106-1.4%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Hume at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity105,624+7.4%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs46,994+38.4%
- 03Islam46,251+42.7%
- 04Hinduism11,629+109%
- 05Buddhism5,873+23.5%
- 06Judaism61+135%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 21 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- Somerton (Vic.)Top language — Italian100%5
- Roxburgh ParkTop language — Arabic69%16,644
- Meadow HeightsTop language — Turkish68%9,976
- CampbellfieldTop language — Arabic67%3,458
- DallasTop language — Turkish67%4,475
- Broadmeadows (Vic.)Top language — Arabic60%7,413
- CraigieburnTop language — Punjabi59%37,658
- KalkalloTop language — Punjabi58%3,157
- CoolarooTop language — Arabic57%1,779
- MicklehamTop language — Punjabi56%9,843
- JacanaTop language — Arabic48%1,029
- Greenvale (Vic.)Top language — Turkish45%9,648
- Gladstone ParkTop language — Arabic34%2,777
- TullamarineTop language — Arabic32%2,188
- WestmeadowsTop language — Arabic29%1,872
- AttwoodTop language — Italian27%904
- Bulla (Vic.)Top language — Italian26%176
- YurokeTop language — Turkish13%15
- Oaklands JunctionTop language — Arabic12%63
- Melbourne AirportTop language — Spanish9%11
- SunburyTop language — Italian8%3,266
- 21 suburbs in Hume. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Hume 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
- Hume
- 48.2%
- Victoria
- 26.6%
- Australia
- 21.3%
48.2% of Hume residents speak a language other than English at home, against 26.6% for Victoria 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. 48.2% is 116,357 residents as a share of all 241,294 of us. A further 14,665 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 54.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 51.3%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Hume, 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 Hume 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 Hume.