We are Maralinga Tjarutja

53 per cent.

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

Our population
130
Speak another language
69
Languages at home
1
Growth since last census
+475.0%

Pitjantjatjara are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 69 of us — 53.1% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In South Australia

#2

of 70 South Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #29 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

The languages of Maralinga Tjarutja

1 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.

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
    Pitjantjatjara
    64+611%

Why we publish this

53.1% of us

We share this portrait because Maralinga Tjarutja is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 3.1 times the South Australia figure. Services designed for the median South 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.

Who we are, beyond language

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    55+293%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    41+116%
  3. 03
    Islam
    3

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 2 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Maralinga Tjarutja 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

Maralinga Tjarutja
53.1%
South Australia
16.9%
Australia
21.3%

53.1% of Maralinga Tjarutja residents speak a language other than English at home, against 16.9% for South 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. 53.1% is 69 residents as a share of all 130 of us. A further 20 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 68.5%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 62.7%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Maralinga Tjarutja, 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 Maralinga Tjarutja 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 Maralinga Tjarutja.