We are Perth

34 per cent.

Nearly 34 in every 100 Perth residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Western Australia.

Our population
36,203
Speak another language
12,134
Languages at home
99
Growth since last census
+9.2%

One in 3 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 12k people, most often Mandarin, Spanish and Cantonese. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.

In Western Australia

#5

of 137 Western Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #63 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

2,815 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 2,815 of our residents at home, 7.8% of Perth.

Spanish

872 speakers

Spanish is spoken by 872 of our residents at home, 2.4% of Perth.

Cantonese

796 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 796 of our residents at home, 2.2% of Perth.

The languages of Perth

99 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 Perth, covering 9,655 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
    2,815+9.0%
  2. 02
    Spanish
    872+74.7%
  3. 03
    Cantonese
    796+2.1%
  4. 04
    Vietnamese
    608+47.6%
  5. 05
    Japanese
    487+13.3%
  6. 06
    Indonesian
    473+26.5%
  7. 07
    Korean
    456-35.2%
  8. 08
    Italian
    431-19.6%
  9. 09
    Hindi
    410+20.2%
  10. 10
    Portuguese
    374-20.1%

Fastest-growing among us

Spanish

+74.7% since last census

We share this portrait because Perth is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.9 times the Western Australia figure. Services designed for the median Western 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.

Spanish grew 74.7% since the last census, to 872 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

49.6% of us were born overseas, across 122 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    2,108+12.0%
  2. 02
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    1,985+18.0%
  3. 03
    India
    1,409+44.7%
  4. 04
    Malaysia
    990+3.4%
  5. 05
    New Zealand
    770-1.4%
  6. 06
    Singapore
    676-3.2%
  7. 07
    Indonesia
    591+33.7%
  8. 08
    Vietnam
    523+49.0%
  9. 09
    South Africa
    519+38.4%
  10. 10
    Philippines
    506+62.2%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    17,195+39.5%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    10,915-0.5%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    1,629+12.7%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    1,504+38.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    1,379+18.4%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    131-5.1%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 6 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Perth 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

Perth
33.5%
Western Australia
17.3%
Australia
21.3%

33.5% of Perth residents speak a language other than English at home, against 17.3% for Western 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. 33.5% is 12,134 residents as a share of all 36,203 of us. A further 3,530 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 43.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 37.1%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Perth, 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 Perth 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 Perth.