We are Ipswich

13 per cent.

About 13 in every 100 Ipswich residents speak a language other than English at home, across 152 languages.

Our population
225,955
Speak another language
29,304
Languages at home
152
Growth since last census
+44.7%

29k of us — 13.0% — speak a language other than English at home, most often Samoan, Punjabi and Vietnamese. A share this size is easy to design around by accident, which is precisely how it gets designed out.

In Queensland

#15

of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #141 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Samoan

4,364 speakers

Samoan is spoken by 4,364 of our residents at home, 1.9% of Ipswich.

Punjabi

2,103 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 2,103 of our residents at home, 0.9% of Ipswich.

Vietnamese

2,099 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 2,099 of our residents at home, 0.9% of Ipswich.

The languages of Ipswich

152 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 Ipswich, covering 20,430 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
    Samoan
    4,364+7.4%
  2. 02
    Punjabi
    2,103+350%
  3. 03
    Vietnamese
    2,099+20.1%
  4. 04
    Malayalam
    1,433+167%
  5. 05
    Hindi
    1,352+48.1%
  6. 06
    Tagalog
    1,210+69.2%
  7. 07
    Spanish
    1,182+33.0%
  8. 08
    Mandarin
    1,115+38.2%
  9. 09
    Dinka
    848+3.2%
  10. 10
    Swahili
    793+62.8%

Fastest-growing among us

Punjabi

+350.3% since last census

We share this portrait because Ipswich 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.

Punjabi grew 350.3% since the last census, to 2,103 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

19.9% of us were born overseas, across 144 countries.

  1. 01
    New Zealand
    12,184+11.2%
  2. 02
    England
    6,375+5.8%
  3. 03
    India
    4,627+159%
  4. 04
    Philippines
    2,754+66.3%
  5. 05
    Samoa
    2,230+19.2%
  6. 06
    Vietnam
    1,429+31.2%
  7. 07
    South Africa
    1,252+42.0%
  8. 08
    Fiji
    882+42.5%
  9. 09
    Scotland
    659+1.7%
  10. 10
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    609+13.0%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    102,055-6.5%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    95,923+64.4%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    4,287+110%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    2,748+15.2%
  5. 05
    Islam
    2,197+90.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    61+35.6%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 69 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Ipswich 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

Ipswich
13.0%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

13.0% of Ipswich 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. 13.0% is 29,304 residents as a share of all 225,955 of us. A further 14,129 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 19.2%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 13.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Ipswich, 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 Ipswich 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 Ipswich.