We are Sydney

34 per cent.

Nearly 34 in every 100 Sydney residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
202,494
Speak another language
68,746
Languages at home
127
Growth since last census
−3.7%

One in 3 of us speaks a language other than English at home: 69k people, most often Mandarin, Cantonese and Thai. That is not a fringe of the community. It is a standing share of every audience anyone here is trying to reach.

In New South Wales

#17

of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #61 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

18,153 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 18,153 of our residents at home, 9.0% of Sydney.

Cantonese

6,071 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 6,071 of our residents at home, 3.0% of Sydney.

Thai

5,758 speakers

Thai is spoken by 5,758 of our residents at home, 2.8% of Sydney.

The languages of Sydney

127 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 Sydney, covering 60,099 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
    18,153-11.5%
  2. 02
    Cantonese
    6,071+0.5%
  3. 03
    Thai
    5,758-11.5%
  4. 04
    Spanish
    5,005+43.4%
  5. 05
    Indonesian
    4,414-3.6%
  6. 06
    Vietnamese
    2,342+9.0%
  7. 07
    Portuguese
    2,120+27.3%
  8. 08
    Korean
    2,105-33.4%
  9. 09
    French
    1,926-21.0%
  10. 10
    Greek
    1,910-8.2%

Fastest-growing among us

Spanish

+43.4% since last census

We share this portrait because Sydney is, genuinely, not an “average” council. 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.

Spanish grew 43.4% since the last census, to 5,005 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

46.8% of us were born overseas, across 144 countries.

  1. 01
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    16,559-18.1%
  2. 02
    England
    9,763+8.4%
  3. 03
    Thailand
    6,241-5.9%
  4. 04
    Indonesia
    5,773+9.9%
  5. 05
    New Zealand
    5,517+6.7%
  6. 06
    India
    3,755+38.0%
  7. 07
    United States of America
    2,739+8.0%
  8. 08
    Malaysia
    2,676+14.2%
  9. 09
    Philippines
    2,395+31.3%
  10. 10
    Hong Kong (SAR of China)
    2,390+5.2%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    106,833+20.2%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    57,997-3.0%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    13,725-5.7%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    3,653+32.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    3,631+21.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    2,119+8.4%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 29 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Sydney 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

Sydney
33.9%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

33.9% of Sydney 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. 33.9% is 68,746 residents as a share of all 202,494 of us. A further 14,872 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 41.3%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 36.6%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Sydney, 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 Sydney 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 Sydney.