We are Swan

22 per cent.

Nearly 22 in every 100 Swan residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Western Australia.

Our population
147,242
Speak another language
32,766
Languages at home
152
Growth since last census
+30.1%

One in 4 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 33k people, most often Vietnamese, Punjabi and Tagalog. 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

#12

of 137 Western Australia councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #93 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Vietnamese

3,056 speakers

Vietnamese is spoken by 3,056 of our residents at home, 2.1% of Swan.

Punjabi

3,039 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 3,039 of our residents at home, 2.1% of Swan.

Tagalog

1,946 speakers

Tagalog is spoken by 1,946 of our residents at home, 1.3% of Swan.

The languages of Swan

152 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 Swan, covering 21,187 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
    3,056+8.9%
  2. 02
    Punjabi
    3,039+137%
  3. 03
    Tagalog
    1,946+49.9%
  4. 04
    Arabic
    1,864+33.9%
  5. 05
    Gujarati
    1,340+66.9%
  6. 06
    Mandarin
    1,296+7.9%
  7. 07
    Filipino
    1,144+44.3%
  8. 08
    Hindi
    1,066+23.4%
  9. 09
    Italian
    1,043-19.8%
  10. 10
    Afrikaans
    852+7.3%

Fastest-growing among us

Punjabi

+137.4% since last census

We share this portrait because Swan 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.

Punjabi grew 137.4% since the last census, to 3,039 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

31.8% of us were born overseas, across 149 countries.

  1. 01
    England
    8,521+3.2%
  2. 02
    India
    5,948+44.9%
  3. 03
    New Zealand
    5,362+3.6%
  4. 04
    Philippines
    3,680+44.9%
  5. 05
    Vietnam
    2,248+14.3%
  6. 06
    South Africa
    2,073+8.9%
  7. 07
    Scotland
    1,170+0.8%
  8. 08
    Malaysia
    1,048+2.0%
  9. 09
    Zimbabwe
    983+20.8%
  10. 10
    Myanmar
    970+29.5%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    61,628-4.2%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    59,970+49.3%
  3. 03
    Islam
    5,977+51.7%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    4,629+65.6%
  5. 05
    Buddhism
    3,726+4.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    133+13.7%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 38 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Swan 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

Swan
22.3%
Western Australia
17.3%
Australia
21.3%

22.3% of Swan 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. 22.3% is 32,766 residents as a share of all 147,242 of us. A further 7,616 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 27.4%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 23.5%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Swan, 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 Swan 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 Swan.