We are Melbourne

45 per cent.

Nearly 45 in every 100 Melbourne residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.

Our population
150,146
Speak another language
67,538
Languages at home
129
Growth since last census
+3.7%

Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 68k of us — 45.0% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In Victoria

#7

of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #41 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

21,922 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 21,922 of our residents at home, 14.6% of Melbourne.

Cantonese

5,247 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 5,247 of our residents at home, 3.5% of Melbourne.

Spanish

4,302 speakers

Spanish is spoken by 4,302 of our residents at home, 2.9% of Melbourne.

The languages of Melbourne

129 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 Melbourne, covering 55,993 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
    Mandarin
    21,922-15.7%
  2. 02
    Cantonese
    5,247-4.5%
  3. 03
    Spanish
    4,302+80.8%
  4. 04
    Hindi
    3,652+52.7%
  5. 05
    Vietnamese
    3,141+50.6%
  6. 06
    Indonesian
    2,738-9.2%
  7. 07
    Korean
    2,378-17.7%
  8. 08
    Thai
    1,891+23.1%
  9. 09
    Arabic
    1,738-1.4%
  10. 10
    Italian
    1,532-14.8%

Fastest-growing among us

Punjabi

+218.1% since last census

We share this portrait because Melbourne is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.7 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.

Punjabi grew 218.1% since the last census, to 493 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

53.3% of us were born overseas, across 140 countries.

  1. 01
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    17,250-21.7%
  2. 02
    India
    10,309+64.2%
  3. 03
    Malaysia
    6,253-7.9%
  4. 04
    England
    3,629+12.0%
  5. 05
    Indonesia
    3,311-1.1%
  6. 06
    New Zealand
    3,259+11.5%
  7. 07
    Vietnam
    2,916+52.2%
  8. 08
    Colombia
    2,602+134%
  9. 09
    Korea, Republic of (South)
    2,415-23.3%
  10. 10
    Philippines
    2,324+109%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    75,378+21.6%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    36,982+8.3%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    9,5930%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    9,390+64.3%
  5. 05
    Islam
    5,990+11.1%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    579+10.1%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 10 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Melbourne 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

Melbourne
45.0%
Victoria
26.6%
Australia
21.3%

45.0% of Melbourne 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. 45.0% is 67,538 residents as a share of all 150,146 of us. A further 11,720 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 52.8%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 48.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Melbourne, 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 Melbourne 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 Melbourne.