Mandarin
16,752 speakers
Mandarin is spoken by 16,752 of our residents at home, 8.4% of The Hills.
We are The Hills
38 per cent.
Nearly 38 in every 100 The Hills residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.
- Our population
- 199,544
- Speak another language
- 76,642
- Languages at home
- 121
- Growth since last census
- +50.3%
Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 77k of us — 38.4% — 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
#13
of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #50 of 540 nationally.
What makes our community ours
Cantonese
6,901 speakers
Cantonese is spoken by 6,901 of our residents at home, 3.5% of The Hills.
Hindi
5,677 speakers
Hindi is spoken by 5,677 of our residents at home, 2.8% of The Hills.
The languages of The Hills
121 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.
Fastest-growing among us
Nepali
+324.0% since last census
We share this portrait because The Hills 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.
Nepali grew 324.0% since the last census, to 725 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
38.9% of us were born overseas, across 146 countries.
- 01China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)13,182+55.6%
- 02India13,180+117%
- 03England5,340-2.6%
- 04Philippines3,616+50.8%
- 05Korea, Republic of (South)3,377+31.6%
- 06Sri Lanka3,307+33.6%
- 07Iran3,108+84.5%
- 08South Africa3,108+21.4%
- 09Hong Kong (SAR of China)2,618+25.0%
- 10New Zealand2,496+8.3%
What we believe
Reported affiliation in The Hills at the 2021 Census, with the change since 2016.
- 01Christianity103,093+2.9%
- 02No religion or secular beliefs54,685+53.7%
- 03Hinduism15,852+109%
- 04Islam8,900+113%
- 05Buddhism6,297+31.1%
- 06Judaism172+9.6%
Our suburbs
Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 20 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.
- Bella VistaTop language — Mandarin53%4,404
- Box Hill (NSW)Top language — Punjabi45%2,886
- North KellyvilleTop language — Mandarin43%7,370
- Castle Hill (NSW)Top language — Mandarin42%17,002
- Baulkham HillsTop language — Mandarin41%15,010
- KellyvilleTop language — Mandarin41%10,905
- West Pennant HillsTop language — Mandarin39%6,374
- Beaumont HillsTop language — Mandarin38%3,439
- GablesTop language — Punjabi37%1,203
- NorwestTop language — Mandarin37%1,690
- Rouse HillTop language — Mandarin33%3,640
- GlenorieTop language — Arabic17%646
- Middle DuralTop language — Italian17%170
- KenthurstTop language — Mandarin15%773
- GlenhavenTop language — Mandarin14%891
- Nelson (The Hills Shire - NSW)Top language — Maltese13%61
- Wisemans FerryTop language — Afrikaans9%14
- AnnangroveTop language — Italian9%126
- South MarootaTop language — Maltese5%30
- Sackville NorthTop language — Dutch2%8
- 20 suburbs in The Hills. Percentage is residents speaking a language other than English at home; the figure beneath it is how many people that is.
Where we are
The Hills 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
- The Hills
- 38.4%
- New South Wales
- 25.7%
- Australia
- 21.3%
38.4% of The Hills 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. 38.4% is 76,642 residents as a share of all 199,544 of us. A further 5,800 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 39.6%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for The Hills, 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 The Hills 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 The Hills.