We are Ryde

49 per cent.

Nearly 49 in every 100 Ryde residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
134,223
Speak another language
65,886
Languages at home
116
Growth since last census
+14.7%

Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 66k of us — 49.1% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In New South Wales

#10

of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #34 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

19,338 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 19,338 of our residents at home, 14.4% of Ryde.

Cantonese

10,056 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 10,056 of our residents at home, 7.5% of Ryde.

Korean

6,185 speakers

Korean is spoken by 6,185 of our residents at home, 4.6% of Ryde.

The languages of Ryde

116 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 Ryde, covering 55,967 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
    19,338+21.1%
  2. 02
    Cantonese
    10,056+12.2%
  3. 03
    Korean
    6,185+6.5%
  4. 04
    Italian
    2,313-13.0%
  5. 05
    Arabic
    2,148+6.2%
  6. 06
    Hindi
    2,079+20.8%
  7. 07
    Armenian
    1,883-2.2%
  8. 08
    Persian (excluding Dari)
    1,717+50.6%
  9. 09
    Spanish
    1,496+23.5%
  10. 10
    Indonesian
    1,260+9.7%

Fastest-growing among us

Portuguese

+157.6% since last census

We share this portrait because Ryde is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.9 times the New South Wales figure. Services designed for the median New South Wales 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.

Portuguese grew 157.6% since the last census, to 443 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

47.5% of us were born overseas, across 131 countries.

  1. 01
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    17,565+10.9%
  2. 02
    India
    5,263+24.3%
  3. 03
    Korea, Republic of (South)
    5,147+5.4%
  4. 04
    Hong Kong (SAR of China)
    3,810+25.6%
  5. 05
    Philippines
    2,823+34.9%
  6. 06
    England
    2,445-2.2%
  7. 07
    Iran
    2,016+33.4%
  8. 08
    Malaysia
    1,971+28.3%
  9. 09
    Italy
    1,554-7.2%
  10. 10
    Indonesia
    1,546+21.4%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    59,942-1.8%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    50,977+34.2%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    5,868+16.2%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    5,799+26.1%
  5. 05
    Islam
    4,171+53.4%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    400+22.7%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 15 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Ryde 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

Ryde
49.1%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

49.1% of Ryde residents speak a language other than English at home, against 25.7% for New South Wales 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. 49.1% is 65,886 residents as a share of all 134,223 of us. A further 5,607 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 53.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 51.2%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Ryde, 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 Ryde 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 Ryde.