We are Liverpool

53 per cent.

Nearly 53 in every 100 Liverpool residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
228,170
Speak another language
121,808
Languages at home
148
Growth since last census
+18.1%

Arabic, Vietnamese and Hindi are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 122k of us — 53.4% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In New South Wales

#7

of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #27 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Arabic

30,373 speakers

Arabic is spoken by 30,373 of our residents at home, 13.3% of Liverpool.

Vietnamese

12,316 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 12,316 of our residents at home, 5.4% of Liverpool.

Hindi

7,868 speakers

Hindi is spoken by 7,868 of our residents at home, 3.4% of Liverpool.

The languages of Liverpool

148 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 Liverpool, covering 96,533 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
    Arabic
    30,373+31.0%
  2. 02
    Vietnamese
    12,316+25.1%
  3. 03
    Hindi
    7,868-2.9%
  4. 04
    Serbian
    5,345+9.7%
  5. 05
    Spanish
    4,802-5.4%
  6. 06
    Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
    4,740+36.2%
  7. 07
    Urdu
    3,516+81.6%
  8. 08
    Italian
    3,409-24.2%
  9. 09
    Mandarin
    3,052+16.5%
  10. 10
    Greek
    2,780-6.3%

Fastest-growing among us

Nepali

+291.4% since last census

We share this portrait because Liverpool is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.1 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.

Nepali grew 291.4% since the last census, to 2,000 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

41.7% of us were born overseas, across 151 countries.

  1. 01
    Iraq
    14,218+43.4%
  2. 02
    Vietnam
    8,376+27.2%
  3. 03
    Fiji
    6,807+5.2%
  4. 04
    India
    6,347+22.1%
  5. 05
    Lebanon
    5,018+21.8%
  6. 06
    Philippines
    4,434+13.2%
  7. 07
    New Zealand
    3,677+9.0%
  8. 08
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    2,945+15.1%
  9. 09
    Italy
    2,360-9.5%
  10. 10
    Pakistan
    2,137+70.6%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    112,541+3.3%
  2. 02
    Islam
    35,014+42.9%
  3. 03
    No religion or secular beliefs
    31,960+36.8%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    13,267+18.3%
  5. 05
    Hinduism
    12,365+23.7%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    23+156%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 34 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Liverpool 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

Liverpool
53.4%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

53.4% of Liverpool 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. 53.4% is 121,808 residents as a share of all 228,170 of us. A further 15,698 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 60.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 57.3%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Liverpool, 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 Liverpool 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 Liverpool.