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About Sydney and NSW > People, skills and education

Language Skills

New South Wales and Sydney are rich in multiculturalism and linguistic diversity. At the time of the last census in 2006, over 1.3 million or 20% of New South Wales residents reported speaking a language other than English at home. In Sydney, around a third of people living in the greater metropolitan area speak a non-English language at home.

Over 40% of Australian residents who speak a language other than English reside in New South Wales. Besides English, the most commonly spoken languages in the State are Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin and other dialects), Arabic, Italian, Greek and Vietnamese. European languages are prominent in the State as a result of cultural and historic links to Europe, and Asian languages have flourished due to higher levels of immigration from Asia.

Sydney’s availability of foreign language speakers, particularly its abundance of Asia language speakers, has proven to be a desirable factor for global firms wishing to establish regional operations hubs or Asia-Pacific customer service centres. Many of these non-English language speakers are also highly qualified, with a significant number having attained tertiary qualifications.


Language Skills - selected languages in Australian states, 2006 (1)
Language NSW Sydney Victoria Queensland Other Australia NSW % of Aust
Speaks English only 4,846,670 2,635,998 3,668,282 3,371,684 3,694,696 15,581,332 31.1
Speaks a non-English language: 1,314,556 1,205,145 1,007,436 303,096 521,108 3,146,196 41.8
Arabic 164,986 161,097 55,926 7,285 15,475 243,672 67.7
Cantonese 129,606 125,292 66,854 19,625 28,472 244,557 53.0
Mandarin 100,594 96,704 64,378 24,445 31,180 220,597 45.6
Italian 87,297 71,770 133,327 22,030 74,240 316,894 27.5
Greek 86,158 80,149 117,875 10,995 37,188 252,216 34.2
Vietnamese 74,588 72,616 72,162 17,144 30,969 194,863 38.3
Spanish 49,557 44,663 24,505 11,298 12,636 97,996 50.6
Hindi 38,147 36,982 18,181 7,956 5,721 70,005 54.5
Korean 36,683 35,943 5,978 7,369 4,600 54,630 67.1
Tagalog (excludes Filipino)(c) 29,215 27,335 11,281 6,754 6,036 53,286 54.8
Macedonian 28,940 19,033 30,771 1,144 6,978 67,833 42.7
Croatian 23,605 20,664 22,958 4,359 12,689 63,611 37.1
German 22,107 14,707 19,603 14,741 19,174 75,625 29.2
Serbian 21,613 18,658 16,866 4,035 10,024 52,538 41.1
Turkish 20,592 18,863 29,749 1,581 1,941 53,863 38.2
Indonesian 19,061 18,205 10,448 3,240 9,288 42,037 45.3
Filipino (excludes Tagalog)(c) 18,260 16,958 10,661 5,023 5,108 39,052 46.8
Tamil 15,743 15,172 11,094 1,679 4,185 32,701 48.1
Polish 15,497 13,034 17,784 4,997 15,105 53,383 29.0
French 15,184 12,884 11,868 7,529 8,625 43,206 35.1
Maltese 14,344 12,987 19,022 1,521 1,628 36,515 39.3
Russian 14,052 13,223 14,339 3,340 4,762 36,493 38.5
Portuguese 13,542 11,681 4,206 2,650 5,383 25,781 52.5
Other languages 275,185 246,525 217,600 112,356 169,701 774,842 35.5
Not stated 387953 278,047 256,703 229,754 253,350 1,127,760 34.4
Total 6,549,179 4,119,190 4,932,421 3,904,534 4,469,154 19,855,288 33.0

Footnotes:
1: Numbers of people who speak a language other than English at home based on place of usual residence.
Source: ABS, 2006 Census of Population and Housing.