Languages of Australia

**Australia** has no official language, but the national language of Australia is English. There are also many languages spoken by Indigenous Australians and by different ethnic groups.

## English

The English language was spoken by the British colonists who came to Australia in the 18th and the 19th centuries. It was used in the colonies they started. Most people who live in Australia today speak English. In 2016, 72.7 percent of people living in Australia only spoke English at home. A dialect of English is spoken in Australia, called Australian English.

## Indigenous languages

Indigenous Australians have been living in Australia for at least 50,000 years. There are around 290 to 363 Indigenous languages. They are from around 28 language families and language isolates.< Many of these languages are not spoken any more or by many people because of the use of English. The largest language family is the Pama-Nyungan family, which has 248 languages.

Three Indigenous languages are spoken in the Torres Strait Islands. These languages are Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Meriam Mir and Yumplatok, a creole of Pacific English. Yumplatok is spoken on the islands more than the other languages.

## Migrant languages

Many different languages are spoken by communities of migrants in Australia. In 2016, 22.2 percent of people living in Australia spoke a language other than English at home. In the same year, these were the 10 most spoken languages other than English at home:
|Number|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- | --- |
|1|Mandarin|2.5%|
|2|Arabic|1.4%|
|3|Cantonese|1.2%|
|4|Vietnamese|1.2%|
|5|Italian|1.2%|
|6|Greek|1.0%|
|7|Tagalog|0.8%|
|8|Hindi|0.7%|
|9|Spanish|0.6%|
|10|Punjabi|0.6%|
In 2011, the most common languages spoken at home other than English were:
|Number|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- | --- |
|1|Mandarin|1.6%|
|2|Italian|1.4%|
|3|Arabic|1.3%|
|4|Cantonese|1.2%|
|5|Greek|1.2%|
|6|Vietnamese|1.1%|
|7|Tagalog|0.6%|
|8|Spanish|0.5%|
|9|Hindi|0.5%|
|10|German|0.4%|

## Most spoken languages by state (2016)

Below is a series of tables showing the top 5 most spoken languages at home, as well as the percent of the population that speaks only English at home.

### Australian Capital Territory

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|72.7%|
|Mandarin|3.1%|
|Vietnamese|1.1%|
|Cantonese|1.0%|
|Hindi|0.9%|
|Spanish|0.8%|

### New South Wales

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|68.5%|
|Mandarin|3.2%|
|Arabic|2.7%|
|Cantonese|1.9%|
|Vietnamese|1.4%|
|Greek|1.1%|
|Italian|1.0%|

### Northern Territory

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|58.0%|
|Indigenous Australian languages|15.3%|
|Tagalog|2.2%|
|Greek|1.4%|
|Mandarin|0.9%|
|Malayalam|0.6%|

### Queensland

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|81.2%|
|Mandarin|1.5%|
|Tagalog|0.6%|
|Vietnamese|0.6%|
|Cantonese|0.5%|
|Spanish|0.4%|

### South Australia

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|78.2%|
|Italian|1.7%|
|Mandarin|1.7%|
|Greek|1.4%|
|Vietnamese|1.1%|
|Persian|0.7%|

### Tasmania

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|88.3%|
|Mandarin|0.8%|
|Nepali|0.3%|
|German|0.3%|
|Greek|0.2%|
|Italian|0.2%|

### Victoria

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|67.9%|
|Mandarin|3.2%|
|Italian|1.9%|
|Greek|1.9%|
|Vietnamese|1.7%|
|Arabic|1.3%|

### Western Australia

|Language|Percent|
| --- | --- |
|English only|75.2%|
|Mandarin|1.9%|
|Italian|1.2%|
|Tagalog|1.0%|
|Vietnamese|0.8%|
|Cantonese|0.8%|

## Related pages

- Languages of New Zealand
- Languages of Papua New Guinea