We are Kwinana

21 per cent.

Nearly 21 in every 100 Kwinana residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Western Australia.

Our population
45,322
Speak another language
9,299
Languages at home
108
Growth since last census
+33.9%

One in 5 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 9,299 people, most often Tagalog, Punjabi and Filipino. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.

In Western Australia

#14

of 137 Western Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #97 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Tagalog

1,379 speakers

Tagalog is spoken by 1,379 of our residents at home, 3.0% of Kwinana.

Punjabi

1,046 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 1,046 of our residents at home, 2.3% of Kwinana.

Filipino

956 speakers

Filipino is spoken by 956 of our residents at home, 2.1% of Kwinana.

The languages of Kwinana

108 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 Kwinana, covering 6,663 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
    Tagalog
    1,379+59.4%
  2. 02
    Punjabi
    1,046+104%
  3. 03
    Filipino
    956+48.7%
  4. 04
    Mandarin
    392-13.5%
  5. 05
    Hindi
    382+12.0%
  6. 06
    Shona
    265+72.1%
  7. 07
    Malayalam
    263+30.2%
  8. 08
    Spanish
    248+14.3%
  9. 09
    Afrikaans
    232+23.4%
  10. 10
    Gujarati
    204+42.7%

Fastest-growing among us

Punjabi

+104.3% since last census

We share this portrait because Kwinana is, genuinely, not an “average” council. Services designed for the median Western Australia 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 104.3% since the last census, to 1,046 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

32.9% of us were born overseas, across 115 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    2,907+1.4%
  2. 02
    Philippines
    2,718+56.0%
  3. 03
    New Zealand
    2,037+1.1%
  4. 04
    India
    1,783+37.5%
  5. 05
    South Africa
    735+32.0%
  6. 06
    Zimbabwe
    391+66.4%
  7. 07
    Scotland
    336-3.4%
  8. 08
    Malaysia
    311+19.6%
  9. 09
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    207-17.9%
  10. 10
    Indonesia
    169+87.8%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    20,167+51.6%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    17,385-3.3%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    1,356+38.7%
  4. 04
    Islam
    724+41.4%
  5. 05
    Buddhism
    645+23.1%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    7-22.2%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 14 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Kwinana 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

Kwinana
20.5%
Western Australia
17.3%
Australia
21.3%

20.5% of Kwinana residents speak a language other than English at home, against 17.3% for Western Australia 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. 20.5% is 9,299 residents as a share of all 45,322 of us. A further 3,594 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 28.4%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 22.3%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Kwinana, 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 Kwinana 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 Kwinana.