We are Torres

50 per cent.

Nearly 50 in every 100 Torres residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Queensland.

Our population
3,778
Speak another language
1,898
Languages at home
27
Growth since last census
−4.3%

Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole), Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Aboriginal English, so described are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 1,898 of us — 50.2% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In Queensland

#7

of 76 Queensland councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #33 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

The languages of Torres

27 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 Torres, covering 1,705 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
    Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)
    1,470-1.7%
  2. 02
    Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Kalaw Lagaw Ya
    78+27.9%
  3. 03
    Aboriginal English, so described
    60
  4. 04
    Meriam Mir
    23+21.1%
  5. 05
    Mandarin
    10
  6. 06
    Japanese
    9-43.8%
  7. 07
    Dutch
    8
  8. 08
    Punjabi
    7-41.7%
  9. 09
    Swedish
    6+50.0%
  10. 10
    Tongan
    5

Why we publish this

50.2% of us

We share this portrait because Torres is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 4.1 times the Queensland figure. Services designed for the median Queensland 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.

Who we are, beyond language

Where we were born

6.2% of us were born overseas, across 22 countries.

  1. 01
    New Zealand
    53+96.3%
  2. 02
    Papua New Guinea
    50+35.1%
  3. 03
    England
    31-13.9%
  4. 04
    Fiji
    14+133%
  5. 05
    Indonesia
    13+333%
  6. 06
    India
    10-33.3%
  7. 07
    Japan
    9+200%
  8. 08
    Thailand
    7
  9. 09
    Philippines
    6+50.0%
  10. 10
    United States of America
    6

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    2,377-11.0%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    914+57.3%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    15+114%
  4. 04
    Islam
    12+20.0%
  5. 05
    Hinduism
    4-55.6%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 5 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Torres 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

Torres
50.2%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

50.2% of Torres residents speak a language other than English at home, against 12.2% for Queensland 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. 50.2% is 1,898 residents as a share of all 3,778 of us. A further 401 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 60.9%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 56.2%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Torres, 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 Torres 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 Torres.