Mandarin
1,611 speakers
Mandarin is spoken by 1,611 of our residents at home, 3.8% of South Perth.
We are South Perth
19 per cent.
About 19 in every 100 South Perth residents speak a language other than English at home, across 94 languages.
- Our population
- 42,602
- Speak another language
- 8,007
- Languages at home
- 94
- Growth since last census
- −4.8%
8,007 of us — 18.8% — speak a language other than English at home, most often Mandarin, Cantonese and Indonesian. A share this size is easy to design around by accident, which is precisely how it gets designed out.
In Western Australia
#19
of 137 Western Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #108 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Cantonese
623 speakers
Cantonese is spoken by 623 of our residents at home, 1.5% of South Perth.
Indonesian
454 speakers
Indonesian is spoken by 454 of our residents at home, 1.1% of South Perth.
The languages of South Perth
94 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.
- 011,611+1.9%
- 02623-6.6%
- 03454-10.8%
- 04358-19.2%
- 05357+5.3%
- 06339-25.7%
- 07301-7.4%
- 08268+1.9%
- 09249+2.9%
- 10183-15.3%
Fastest-growing among us
Spanish
+5.3% since last census
We share this portrait because South Perth is, genuinely, not an “average” council. 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 5.3% since the last census, to 357 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
32.1% of us were born overseas, across 122 countries.
- 01England2,587-0.6%
- 02Malaysia1,154-0.8%
- 03India876+1.2%
- 04China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)809-8.2%
- 05New Zealand773-3.4%
- 06South Africa665+5.6%
- 07Singapore579+3.0%
- 08Indonesia517-7.8%
- 09Scotland414-4.8%
- 10Ireland306-28.0%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in South Perth at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity18,883-6.8%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs17,962+30.3%
- 03Buddhism1,344+6.2%
- 04Islam1,041-9.3%
- 05Hinduism878+27.1%
- 06Judaism60-18.9%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 7 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- Waterford (WA)Top language — Mandarin38%922
- KarawaraTop language — Mandarin35%632
- Como (WA)Top language — Mandarin19%2,754
- South PerthTop language — Mandarin18%2,217
- ManningTop language — Mandarin17%735
- Salter PointTop language — Mandarin14%392
- Kensington (WA)Top language — Mandarin8%355
- 7 suburbs in South Perth. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
South 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
- South Perth
- 18.8%
- Western Australia
- 17.3%
- Australia
- 21.3%
18.8% of South 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. 18.8% is 8,007 residents as a share of all 42,602 of us. A further 2,221 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 24.0%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 19.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for South 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 South 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 South Perth.