In proof that Radio 4EB continues to become more and more relevant to our emerging and established multilingual communities, counting nearly 25.5 million people, the 2021 Australian census results released last month found that almost half of Australians now have a parent born overseas (48.2 %). With 27.6 % of Australians born outside Australia themselves, what this means is that more than half of all Australians are now first or second-generation migrants.
Collecting information on over 250 ancestries and 350 languages, the ABS said the data showed Australia is a “fast-changing, growing and culturally diverse nation”.
Some points of interest include:
- The number of people using a language other than English at home has increased by nearly 800,000, rising to over 5.5 million people.
- Despite Covid, from 2017 to 2021, over one million people (1,020,007) arrived in Australia, contributing to the proportion of residents who are either first or second-generation increasing to 51.5 %
- The largest increase in country of birth for people born outside Australia was India, which has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third-largest country of birth behind Australia and England.
- The second-largest increase in country of birth was Nepal with the population of Nepali-born Australian residents more than doubling since 2016, with an increase of 123.7 per cent.
- The numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are growing, with an increase of 25 % since 2016.
- Mandarin continues to be the most common language other than English used at home, followed by Arabic. Punjabi had the largest increase, with over 239,000 people using Punjabi at home, an increase of over 80 % from 2016.
Broadcasting in over 50 languages across two separate radio stations + ever increasing digital platforms, Radio 4EB is Queensland’s ONLY multilingual not for profit media organisation. A listener and volunteer supported community radio station, check out how to get involved with Radio 4EB at: https://www.4eb.org.au/subscribe/