We are Port Adelaide Enfield

35 per cent.

Nearly 35 in every 100 Port Adelaide Enfield residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in South Australia.

Our population
131,816
Speak another language
45,645
Languages at home
154
Growth since last census
+22.7%

One in 3 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 46k people, most often Vietnamese, Punjabi and Mandarin. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.

In South Australia

#4

of 70 South Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #58 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Vietnamese

6,908 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 6,908 of our residents at home, 5.2% of Port Adelaide Enfield.

Punjabi

4,339 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 4,339 of our residents at home, 3.3% of Port Adelaide Enfield.

Mandarin

3,525 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 3,525 of our residents at home, 2.7% of Port Adelaide Enfield.

The languages of Port Adelaide Enfield

154 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 Port Adelaide Enfield, covering 34,737 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
    Vietnamese
    6,908+11.4%
  2. 02
    Punjabi
    4,339+149%
  3. 03
    Mandarin
    3,525+3.1%
  4. 04
    Gujarati
    3,406+95.1%
  5. 05
    Hazaraghi
    1,989+65.2%
  6. 06
    Greek
    1,986-4.7%
  7. 07
    Hindi
    1,818+43.1%
  8. 08
    Italian
    1,721-17.8%
  9. 09
    Cantonese
    1,559+2.8%
  10. 10
    Arabic
    1,260+18.4%

Fastest-growing among us

Punjabi

+149.1% since last census

We share this portrait because Port Adelaide Enfield is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 2.0 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.

Punjabi grew 149.1% since the last census, to 4,339 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

34.2% of us were born overseas, across 139 countries.

  1. 01
    India
    10,132+76.0%
  2. 02
    Vietnam
    5,136+12.6%
  3. 03
    England
    4,5890%
  4. 04
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    3,007+2.6%
  5. 05
    Afghanistan
    2,258+19.2%
  6. 06
    Philippines
    2,040+24.8%
  7. 07
    Italy
    1,219-8.6%
  8. 08
    Pakistan
    993+60.9%
  9. 09
    New Zealand
    850+8.0%
  10. 10
    Malaysia
    8230%

What we believe

Reported affiliation in Port Adelaide Enfield at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    50,039+30.0%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    48,599-9.7%
  3. 03
    Hinduism
    7,989+80.5%
  4. 04
    Islam
    7,968+35.0%
  5. 05
    Buddhism
    5,955+7.8%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    37+311%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 47 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Port Adelaide Enfield 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

Port Adelaide Enfield
34.6%
South Australia
16.9%
Australia
21.3%

34.6% of Port Adelaide Enfield 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. 34.6% is 45,645 residents as a share of all 131,816 of us. A further 6,399 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 39.5%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 36.4%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Port Adelaide Enfield, 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 Port Adelaide Enfield 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 Port Adelaide Enfield.