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AustraliaCommunity profile

Greater Darwin

Language used at home

In Greater Darwin, 23.6% of people used a language other than English at home in 2021.

Greater Darwin's language statistics show the proportion of the population who use a language at home other than English. They indicate how culturally diverse a population is and the degree to which different ethnic groups and nationalities are retaining their language.

Greater Darwin's language statistics should be analysed in conjunction with Country of Birth and Proficiency in English to assist in identifying specific cultural and ethnic groups in the area and the services required by the multicultural community.

Please note: Due to ABS rules regarding perturbation of data to protect the confidentiality of individuals, counts of individual language groups and totals derived from them may differ slightly from those published by the ABS.

Q:

Derived from the Census question:

'Does the person use a language other than English at home?'

Language used at home - Summary
Greater Darwin - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Language summaryNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2016 to 2021
Speaks English only93,27766.772.092,94067.972.7+337
Non-English total32,97523.622.327,60020.220.8+5,375
Not stated13,6509.85.716,29111.96.5-2,641
Total Population139,902100.0100.0136,831100.0100.0+3,071
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information
Language used at home - Ranked by size
Greater Darwin - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Language (excludes English)Number%Australia %Number%Australia %2016 to 2021
Filipino/Tagalog4,3423.10.94,2753.10.8+67
Greek3,1752.30.93,1742.31.0+1
Nepali2,6511.90.51,0750.80.3+1,576
Mandarin2,0951.52.71,8491.42.5+246
Australian Indigenous Languages1,3911.00.31,1290.80.3+262
Vietnamese1,3190.91.31,0170.71.2+302
Indonesian1,1780.80.31,0890.80.3+89
Malayalam1,0680.80.37730.60.2+295
Punjabi1,0680.80.94780.30.6+590
Thai8780.60.37310.50.2+147
Show all (88 entries)

Excludes languages spoken at home by fewer than 10 people.

Dominant groups

Analysis of the language used at home by the population of Greater Darwin in 2021 compared to Australia shows that there was a smaller proportion of people who used English only, and a larger proportion of those using a non-English language (either exclusively, or in addition to English).

Overall, 66.7% of the population used English only, and 23.6% used a non-English language, compared with 72.0% and 22.3% respectively for Australia.

The dominant language used at home, other than English, in Greater Darwin was Filipino/Tagalog, with 3.1% of the population, or 4,342 people using this language at home.

The major differences between the languages used at home for the population of Greater Darwin and Australia in 2021 were:

  • A larger percentage using Filipino/Tagalog at home (3.1% compared to 0.9%)
  • A larger percentage using Nepali at home (1.9% compared to 0.5%)
  • A larger percentage using Greek at home (2.3% compared to 0.9%)
  • A smaller percentage using Arabic at home (0.2% compared to 1.4%)

Emerging groups

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people who used a language other than English at home increased by 5,375 or 19.5%, and the number of people who used English only increased by 337 or 0.4%.

The largest changes in the languages used by the population in Greater Darwin between 2016 and 2021 were for those using:

  • Nepali (+1,576 persons)
  • Punjabi (+590 persons)
  • Sinhalese (+408 persons)
  • Urdu (+390 persons)

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