We are Monash

52 per cent.

Nearly 52 in every 100 Monash residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.

Our population
189,584
Speak another language
97,844
Languages at home
131
Growth since last census
+8.7%

Mandarin, Greek and Cantonese are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 98k of us — 51.6% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In Victoria

#3

of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #31 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

28,915 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 28,915 of our residents at home, 15.3% of Monash.

Greek

10,724 speakers

Greek is spoken by 10,724 of our residents at home, 5.7% of Monash.

Cantonese

8,658 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 8,658 of our residents at home, 4.6% of Monash.

The languages of Monash

131 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 Monash, covering 82,494 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
    28,915+9.0%
  2. 02
    Greek
    10,724-2.0%
  3. 03
    Cantonese
    8,6580%
  4. 04
    Sinhalese
    5,596+19.5%
  5. 05
    Hindi
    4,315+40.8%
  6. 06
    Vietnamese
    3,528+18.8%
  7. 07
    Tamil
    3,197+20.2%
  8. 08
    Italian
    3,160-19.0%
  9. 09
    Korean
    2,194-8.6%
  10. 10
    Punjabi
    1,897+24.6%

Fastest-growing among us

Nepali

+158.7% since last census

We share this portrait because Monash is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.9 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.

Nepali grew 158.7% since the last census, to 608 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

49.0% of us were born overseas, across 143 countries.

  1. 01
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    22,5620%
  2. 02
    India
    13,716+40.1%
  3. 03
    Sri Lanka
    7,464+13.7%
  4. 04
    Malaysia
    6,433+6.9%
  5. 05
    Greece
    4,664-0.8%
  6. 06
    Vietnam
    3,286+15.6%
  7. 07
    England
    3,234-7.9%
  8. 08
    Hong Kong (SAR of China)
    2,643+10.2%
  9. 09
    Italy
    2,420-9.0%
  10. 10
    New Zealand
    1,976-2.8%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    75,924-7.0%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    68,118+17.6%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    14,430+49.7%
  4. 04
    Buddhism
    13,787+10.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    5,261+22.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    701-6.2%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 13 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Monash 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

Monash
51.6%
Victoria
26.6%
Australia
21.3%

51.6% of Monash 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. 51.6% is 97,844 residents as a share of all 189,584 of us. A further 7,874 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 55.8%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 53.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Monash, 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 Monash 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 Monash.