We are Willoughby

41 per cent.

Nearly 41 in every 100 Willoughby residents speak a language other than English at home. It is among the highest shares of any council in New South Wales.

Our population
68,158
Speak another language
27,665
Languages at home
91
Growth since last census
+4.7%

Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese are spoken here in numbers that shape how the place works. 28k of us — 40.6% — 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

#12

of 128 New South Wales councils for the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home. #46 of 540 nationally.

What makes our community ours

Mandarin

9,069 speakers

Mandarin is spoken by 9,069 of our residents at home, 13.3% of Willoughby.

Cantonese

5,369 speakers

Cantonese is spoken by 5,369 of our residents at home, 7.9% of Willoughby.

Japanese

1,625 speakers

Japanese is spoken by 1,625 of our residents at home, 2.4% of Willoughby.

The languages of Willoughby

91 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 Willoughby, covering 24,353 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
    9,069+9.0%
  2. 02
    Cantonese
    5,369+6.6%
  3. 03
    Japanese
    1,6250%
  4. 04
    Korean
    1,598-31.1%
  5. 05
    Hindi
    958+48.1%
  6. 06
    Armenian
    696-1.0%
  7. 07
    Spanish
    518+27.6%
  8. 08
    Thai
    518+17.5%
  9. 09
    Italian
    501-25.0%
  10. 10
    Indonesian
    467+0.9%

Fastest-growing among us

Hindi

+48.1% since last census

We share this portrait because Willoughby is, genuinely, not an “average” council — the share here is 1.6 times the New South Wales figure. 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.

Hindi grew 48.1% since the last census, to 958 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

44.6% of us were born overseas, across 110 countries.

  1. 01
    China (excludes SARs and Taiwan)
    7,732+4.5%
  2. 02
    Hong Kong (SAR of China)
    2,578+14.0%
  3. 03
    England
    2,405-4.4%
  4. 04
    India
    2,084+31.2%
  5. 05
    Korea, Republic of (South)
    1,439-29.8%
  6. 06
    Japan
    1,209-4.4%
  7. 07
    New Zealand
    1,180-4.8%
  8. 08
    Malaysia
    1,069+13.8%
  9. 09
    Philippines
    882+12.5%
  10. 10
    Taiwan
    828-7.8%

What we believe

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

  1. 01
    No religion or secular beliefs
    30,170+19.8%
  2. 02
    Christianity
    27,677-8.0%
  3. 03
    Buddhism
    3,070+6.3%
  4. 04
    Hinduism
    2,478+34.7%
  5. 05
    Islam
    857+20.0%
  6. 06
    Judaism
    649+2.9%

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any of our 11 suburbs for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are

Willoughby 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

Willoughby
40.6%
New South Wales
25.7%
Australia
21.3%

40.6% of Willoughby 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. 40.6% is 27,665 residents as a share of all 68,158 of us. A further 2,375 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 44.1%, which is a larger number and a weaker claim. Measured only across the residents who answered, the share is 42.1%. If you have seen a higher figure quoted for Willoughby, 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 Willoughby 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 Willoughby.