We are Whittlesea

44 per cent.

Nearly 44 in every 100 Whittlesea residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in Victoria.

Our population
240,594
Speak another language
105,796
Languages at home
147
Growth since last census
+17.2%

Arabic, Macedonian and Punjabi are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 106k of us — 44.0% — speak a language other than English at home, so an English-only notice reaches barely half the households it was addressed to.

In Victoria

#8

of 79 Victoria councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #43 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Arabic

12,123 speakers

Arabic is spoken by 12,123 of our residents at home, 5.0% of Whittlesea.

Macedonian

10,147 speakers

Macedonian is spoken by 10,147 of our residents at home, 4.2% of Whittlesea.

Punjabi

9,931 speakers

Punjabi is spoken by 9,931 of our residents at home, 4.1% of Whittlesea.

The languages of Whittlesea

147 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 Whittlesea, covering 86,912 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
    Arabic
    12,123+18.6%
  2. 02
    Macedonian
    10,147-1.9%
  3. 03
    Punjabi
    9,931+56.3%
  4. 04
    Italian
    8,712-15.7%
  5. 05
    Greek
    7,616-1.9%
  6. 06
    Mandarin
    6,550+5.4%
  7. 07
    Vietnamese
    5,488+9.2%
  8. 08
    Hindi
    4,742+31.6%
  9. 09
    Malayalam
    2,835+83.0%
  10. 10
    Sinhalese
    2,829+34.6%

Fastest-growing among us

Nepali

+309.5% since last census

We share this portrait because Whittlesea is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.7 times the Victoria figure. Services designed for the median Victoria 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 309.5% since the last census, to 2,248 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

35.7% of us were born overseas, across 148 countries.

  1. 01
    India
    17,589+51.4%
  2. 02
    Italy
    6,015-2.3%
  3. 03
    North Macedonia
    5,783
  4. 04
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    5,049-4.7%
  5. 05
    Sri Lanka
    4,013+18.6%
  6. 06
    Greece
    3,932+1.6%
  7. 07
    Vietnam
    3,799+11.1%
  8. 08
    Iraq
    3,067+32.0%
  9. 09
    Philippines
    3,034+27.1%
  10. 10
    England
    2,880+1.0%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    Christianity
    115,188+1.3%
  2. 02
    No religion or secular beliefs
    60,627+35.7%
  3. 03
    Islam
    21,222+40.9%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    14,919+70.9%
  5. 05
    Buddhism
    8,294+15.5%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    38+90.0%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 15 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Whittlesea 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

Whittlesea
44.0%
Victoria
26.6%
Australia
21.3%

44.0% of Whittlesea residents speak a language other than English at home, against 26.6% for Victoria 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. 44.0% is 105,796 residents as a share of all 240,594 of us. A further 11,478 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 48.7%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 46.2%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Whittlesea, 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 Whittlesea 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 Whittlesea.