Punjabi
10,489 speakers
Punjabi is spoken by 10,489 of our residents at home, 5.9% of Melton.
We are Melton
38 per cent.
Nearly 38 in every 100 Melton residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.
- Our population
- 176,985
- Speak another language
- 67,212
- Languages at home
- 150
- Growth since last census
- +58.4%
Punjabi, Vietnamese and Arabic are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 67k of us — 38.0% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.
In Victoria
#11
of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #51 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Vietnamese
4,543 speakers
Vietnamese is spoken by 4,543 of our residents at home, 2.6% of Melton.
Arabic
3,649 speakers
Arabic is spoken by 3,649 of our residents at home, 2.1% of Melton.
The languages of Melton
150 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
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.
- 0110,489+297%
- 024,543+66.7%
- 033,649+48.4%
- 043,417+80.1%
- 052,944+42.2%
- 062,685+13.5%
- 072,486+166%
- 082,289-9.9%
- 092,100+43.3%
- 102,026+9.1%
Fastest-growing among us
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
+311.2% since last census
We share this portrait because Melton is, genuinely, not an “average” council. 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.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic grew 311.2% since the last census, to 880 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
33.7% of us were born overseas, across 137 countries.
- 01India14,141+172%
- 02Philippines5,745+46.3%
- 03New Zealand3,862+36.3%
- 04Vietnam2,961+60.5%
- 05England2,505-3.1%
- 06Malta1,978+0.9%
- 07Sri Lanka1,740+44.4%
- 08Pakistan1,651+136%
- 09North Macedonia1,416
- 10Iraq1,173+224%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in Melton at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity86,368+11.0%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs43,631+43.8%
- 03Islam11,340+108%
- 04Hinduism9,086+147%
- 05Buddhism4,998+36.6%
- 06Judaism20-35.5%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 26 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- AintreeTop language — Punjabi64%5,055
- Burnside HeightsTop language — Vietnamese59%3,718
- CobblebankTop language — Punjabi55%1,984
- Thornhill ParkTop language — Punjabi54%1,569
- StrathtullohTop language — Punjabi53%2,115
- Burnside (Vic.)Top language — Vietnamese53%3,041
- Fraser RiseTop language — Punjabi50%4,522
- RockbankTop language — Punjabi50%1,313
- Bonnie BrookTop language — Punjabi49%492
- DeansideTop language — Albanian47%33
- Taylors HillTop language — Vietnamese46%6,998
- Caroline SpringsTop language — Vietnamese45%10,797
- Weir ViewsTop language — Punjabi43%1,815
- Hillside (Melton - Vic.)Top language — Arabic34%5,834
- Brookfield (Vic.)Top language — Punjabi34%3,604
- Mount CottrellTop language — Arabic34%76
- GrangefieldsTop language — Maltese31%47
- HarknessTop language — Punjabi30%3,706
- Melton SouthTop language — Punjabi30%3,291
- Diggers RestTop language — Punjabi23%1,313
- Melton (Vic.)Top language — Punjabi22%1,692
- KurunjangTop language — Maltese21%2,191
- Melton WestTop language — Punjabi20%1,720
- EynesburyTop language — Spanish8%223
- Toolern ValeTop language — Maltese7%63
- Ravenhall0%0
- 26 suburbs in Melton. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
Melton 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
- Melton
- 38.0%
- Victoria
- 26.6%
- Australia
- 21.3%
38.0% of Melton 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. 38.0% is 67,212 residents as a share of all 176,985 of us. A further 12,007 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 44.8%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 40.7%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Melton, 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 Melton 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 Melton.