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 | MEDIA FACT SHEET | |
| June 27, 2007 | Embargoed 9.30 am (AEST) | 70/2007 |
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Australians overall claim more than 250 ancestries, speak 400 languages at home: Census |
Ancestries
- In the 2006 Census, Australians reported more than 250 different ancestries, with many people claiming two ancestries. The most common ancestry was Australian, with 7.4 million, or 37% of all people, choosing this as at least one of their ancestries. The next most popular ancestries were English (6.3 million or 32%), Irish (1.8 million or 9.1%) and Scottish (1.5 million or 7.6%), reflecting the dominant sources of migrants to Australia since European settlement. Italian, German and Chinese were the next most common ancestries.
- Around 64% of Australian residents identified with only one ancestry, while 28% selected two ancestries.
- Of the people who selected two ancestries, the most common combinations were English-Australian (with around 1.26 million persons), English-Irish (753,000) and English-Scottish (504,000).
Languages
- The 2006 Census also recorded that almost 400 different languages were spoken in homes across Australia. Close to 79% of Australia's population spoke only English at home, a decrease from 82% in 1996.
- As in 1996, the three most common languages other than English in 2006 were Italian (accounting for 1.6% of the population), Greek (1.3%) and Cantonese (1.2%). Of these, Cantonese was the only language which had an increase in the number of speakers since 1996 (21% growth), while Italian and Greek speakers declined in number by around 16% and 7% respectively.
- The recent growth of Asian languages and the decline of those from Europe in Australia reflects the recent trends in the birthplaces of Australia's overseas-born. Of Australia's main non-English languages*, Mandarin and Hindi have experienced the fastest proportional growth – both more than doubling in speakers since 1996. Conversely, German speakers declined the most in number, falling by around 24%.
- Between 1996 and 2006, except for Darwin, the proportion of each capital city's non-English speakers increased. In 2006, Sydney had the largest proportion of its residents speaking non-English languages at home (around 29% or 1.2 million people), while Hobart had the smallest proportion (5.1% or 10,000 people).
*Languages with more than 50,000 speakers (who speak it when at home).
NB: The figures in this fact sheet exclude overseas visitors. Where an answer to a question has not been provided (i.e. not stated) these occurrences form a separate category in the data and therefore some percentages do not total to 100%.
Source: ABS 2006 Census.
Table 1. 2006 Census: Top 15 ancestries, Australia |
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| Persons | Proportion of total population(a) | |
| '000 | % | |
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| Australian | 7 371.8 | 37.1 | |
| English | 6 283.6 | 31.6 | |
| Irish | 1 803.7 | 9.1 | |
| Scottish | 1 501.2 | 7.6 | |
| Italian | 852.4 | 4.3 | |
| German | 811.5 | 4.1 | |
| Chinese | 669.9 | 3.4 | |
| Greek | 365.2 | 1.8 | |
| Dutch | 310.1 | 1.6 | |
| Indian | 234.7 | 1.2 | |
| Lebanese | 181.8 | 0.9 | |
| Vietnamese | 173.7 | 0.9 | |
| Polish | 163.8 | 0.8 | |
| New Zealander | 160.7 | 0.8 | |
| Filipino | 160.4 | 0.8 | |
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| (a) As respondents can identify with up to two ancestries, proportions for all ancestries do not add up to 100 per cent. |
Table 2.1. 2006 Census: Top ten ancestry combinations, Australia |
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| Rank | Ancestry combination | Persons ('000) | |
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| 1 | English-Australian | 1 263.1 | |
| 2 | English-Irish | 753.4 | |
| 3 | English-Scottish | 503.9 | |
| 4 | Australian-Scottish | 278.7 | |
| 5 | Australian-Irish | 257.3 | |
| 6 | English-German | 241.1 | |
| 7 | Scottish-Irish | 213.1 | |
| 8 | Australian-German | 118.8 | |
| 9 | Australian-Italian | 116.0 | |
| 10 | English-Italian | 95.3 | |
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Table 2.2. 2006 Census: Top ancestry combinations, Australia |
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| Top ancestry combinations (excluding British, Irish and Australian ancestries) | Persons ('000) | |
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| Italian-German | 15.2 | |
| Italian-Greek | 10.5 | |
| German-Polish | 9.9 | |
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Table 3. 2006 Census: Top 10 languages spoken at home, Australia |
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| Persons | Proportion of total population | |
| Language | '000 | % | |
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| English | 15 581.3 | 78.5 | |
| Italian | 316.9 | 1.6 | |
| Greek | 252.2 | 1.3 | |
| Cantonese | 244.6 | 1.2 | |
| Arabic | 243.7 | 1.2 | |
| Mandarin | 220.6 | 1.1 | |
| Vietnamese | 194.9 | 1.0 | |
| Spanish | 98.0 | 0.5 | |
| German | 75.6 | 0.4 | |
| Hindi | 70.0 | 0.4 | |
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Table 4. Top 15 languages spoken at home, Australia - 1996 Census - 2006 Census |
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| 1996 | 2006 | Growth (1996-2006) | |
| Language | '000 | '000 | % | |
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| English | 14 564.9 | 15 581.3 | 7.0 | |
| Italian | 375.8 | 316.9 | -15.7 | |
| Greek | 269.8 | 252.2 | -6.5 | |
| Cantonese | 202.5 | 244.6 | 20.8 | |
| Arabic | 177.6 | 243.7 | 37.2 | |
| Mandarin | 92.4 | 220.6 | 138.9 | |
| Vietnamese | 146.3 | 194.9 | 33.2 | |
| Spanish | 91.3 | 98.0 | 7.4 | |
| German | 98.8 | 75.6 | -23.5 | |
| Hindi | 34.0 | 70.0 | 106.0 | |
| Macedonian | 71.3 | 67.8 | -4.9 | |
| Croatian | 69.2 | 63.6 | -8.0 | |
| Korean | 29.9 | 54.6 | 82.6 | |
| Turkish | 46.2 | 53.9 | 16.6 | |
| Polish | 62.8 | 53.4 | -14.9 | |
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Table 5. Language other than English spoken at home, capital cities - 1996 Census - 2006 Census(a) |
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| 1996 | 2006 | Change in persons (1996-2006) | |
| % | % | '000 | |
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| Sydney | 26.4 | 29.3 | 223.1 | |
| Melbourne | 25.7 | 26.3 | 133.7 | |
| Brisbane | 9.2 | 10.7 | 53.9 | |
| Adelaide | 14.9 | 15.2 | 11.8 | |
| Perth | 13.5 | 13.9 | 33.0 | |
| Hobart | 4.9 | 5.1 | 0.9 | |
| Darwin | 15.7 | 12.5 | 0.9 | |
| Canberra | 13.7 | 14.6 | 6.3 | |
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| (a) Capital City Statistical Division. |
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