The results of Census 2016 reveal who we are, where we live, what we do, how we work and how we lead our lives.
Punjabi has again emerged as the fastest growing language spoken at home in Australia.
Census data 2016 reveals that Punjabi speaking population has almost doubled in last five years.
The number of Punjabi-speakers jumped from 71,229 (0.3% of the total population) in the 2011 Census to 132,496 (0.6%) in 2016.
The majority of the Punjabi population chose Victoria as their state of choice in Australia.
From Blacktown in NSW to Tarneit in Victoria; from Canning Wale in Western Australia to Cairns in Queensland, here are the top Punjabi speaking suburbs of Australia.
Hover around the interactive map below to find out how many people in your suburb speak Punjabi.
The largest proportion of Punjabi population lives in the Victorian suburb of Craigieburn followed by Blacktown in NSW.
Here are the state-wise figures of Punjabi-speakers:
- VICTORIA - 56,171
- NSW – 33,435
- QUEENSLAND - 17,991
- WESTERN AUSTRALIA - 12,223
- SOUTH AUSTRALIA – 9,306
- AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY (ACT) – 2,215
- NORTHERN TERRITORY – 670
- TASMANIA - 489
Punjabi is also the seventh most spoken language in Melbourne, after English. It is spoken by 1.2% of Melbourne's population and is the most popular Indian sub-continental language, followed by Hindi and Sinhalese.
With a total of 132,000 Punjabi speakers in Australia, almost four in five (over 78 per cent) were born in India.
Punjabi is also the most-spoken language among India-born people living in Australia.
A total of 102,661 India born people identified Punjabi as their mother tongue, making Punjabi the most common language spoken by Australians born in India.
Though most Australians speak English at home (72.7%) but it has declined from 76.8% recorded in the previous Census.
Over 300 ancestries were separately identified in the 2016 Census. Indians with a percentage of 2.8% are among the ten most commonly reported ancestries.
