We are Torres Strait Island

86 per cent.

Nearly 86 in every 100 Torres Strait Island residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Queensland.

Our population
4,101
Speak another language
3,514
Languages at home
10
Growth since last census
−9.8%

Our neighbourhoods run in Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole), Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mir as readily as they do in English. 3,514 of us speak a language other than English at home — a higher share than almost anywhere else in the country, and the ordinary condition of daily life here rather than an exception to it.

In Queensland

#1

for share of residents speaking a language other than English at home, of 76 Queensland councils — a ranking Torres Strait Island has held through successive censuses. #2 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Meriam Mir

55 speakers

Meriam Mir is spoken by 55 of our residents at home, 1.3% of Torres Strait Island.

The languages of Torres Strait Island

10 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 5 most spoken languages in Torres Strait Island, covering 3,375 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)
    2,917+15.2%
  2. 02
    Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Kalaw Lagaw Ya
    380-25.3%
  3. 03
    Meriam Mir
    55-54.5%
  4. 04
    Aboriginal English, so described
    18
  5. 05
    Kriol
    5+25.0%
  6. 06
    Kiwai
    0-100%
  7. 07
    Non-verbal, so described
    0-100%
  8. 08
    German
    0-100%
  9. 09
    Motu (HiriMotu)
    0-100%
  10. 10
    Dutch
    0-100%

Fastest-growing among us

Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)

+15.2% since last census

We share this portrait because Torres Strait Island is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 7.0 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.

Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) grew 15.2% since the last census, to 2,917 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

2.7% of us were born overseas, across 3 countries.

  1. 01
    Papua New Guinea
    95-36.7%
  2. 02
    Netherlands
    6
  3. 03
    New Zealand
    0-100%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    3,182-8.7%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    497+50.2%
  3. 03
    Judaism
    0-100%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 14 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Torres Strait Island 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 Strait Island
85.7%
Queensland
12.2%
Australia
21.3%

85.7% of Torres Strait Island 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. 85.7% is 3,514 residents as a share of all 4,101 of us. A further 316 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 93.4%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 92.8%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Torres Strait Island, 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 Strait Island 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 Strait Island.