Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 5—Population 165
Western Australia and South Australia (including
the Northern Territory), and many languages
would have been current among these people
(Coghlan 1904). Over the twentieth century,
European settlement of these areas continued,
and the Indigenous languages surviving today are
mostly spoken by people in those regions in the
centre and north of Australia which are still
relatively sparsely populated.
By the end of the century, increased immigration,
from a greater range of source countries, had
increased the proportion of the population who
spoke a language other than English. In 1996,
about 2.5 million people (16% of the population
five years and over) spoke a language other than
English at home. Over 200 languages were
spoken. The leading five languages other than
English were Italian, Greek, Cantonese,
Arabic/Lebanese and Vietnamese. Each of these
were spoken by more than 100,000 people. A
further ten languages were spoken by more than
40,000 people. Most people who spoke a
language other than English were born overseas
(74%), while 26% were Australian-born. After
Indigenous languages, Greek, Italian and Arabic
had the largest proportions of Australian-born
speakers, partly reflecting a greater rate of
maintenance of these languages among the
second generation of these language groups.
About 44,000 people spoke an Australian
Indigenous language or an Australian creole (a
language developed from pidgin English) in the
home (table 5.54). Speakers of these languages
made up 14% of Indigenous people and 0.3% of
the Australian population. Some 64% of
Indigenous people in the Northern Territory
spoke an Indigenous language or creole at home.
Speakers of 48 Australian Indigenous languages
were enumerated in the Census. The two
languages with the most speakers were Arrente, a
central Australian language (3,468 speakers), and
Dhuwal~Dhuwala, an Arnhem land language
(3,219 speakers).
Within the group who spoke a language other
than English at home, proficiency in English as
reported in the Census varied according to age
and whether or not they were Australian-born.
Over 92% of 5 to 24 year olds spoke English well
or very well, compared with 59% of those aged 65
years and over (table 5.55). Those born in
Australia had a consistently greater proficiency in
English, with close to 96% speaking English well
or very well, compared to 82% overall. However,
proficiency in speaking English well had
increased slightly in all age groups since the 1991
Census.
5.54 PERSONS(a) WHO SPOKE A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH AT HOME—1996
Males
Females
Persons
Proportion
Australianborn
Persons as a
proportion of
population
Language spoken at home
’000 ’000 ’000
%
%
Italian 183.6 183.7 367.3 40.7 2.3
Greek 130.3 128.7 259.0 46.7 1.6
Cantonese 91.6 98.5 190.1 12.9 1.2
Arabic/Lebanese 83.7 78.3 162.0 37.8 1.0
Vietnamese 67.3 66.7 134.0 12.6 0.8
German 46.3 50.3 96.7 18.9 0.6
Mandarin 42.7 44.6 87.3 6.4 0.5
Spanish 42.2 44.6 86.9 17.6 0.5
Macedonian 34.8 33.3 68.1 34.9 0.4
Tagalog (Filipino) 26.0 41.3 67.3 5.0 0.4
Croatian 33.7 33.0 66.7 32.4 0.4
Polish 28.3 32.7 61.0 16.2 0.4
Maltese 22.4 22.3 44.7 27.9 0.3
Indigenous languages & creoles 21.8 22.4 44.2 98.9 0.3
Turkish 21.7 20.6 42.2 31.3 0.3
Netherlandic (Dutch/Flemish) 18.3 21.9 40.2 12.4 0.3
All other(b) 323.5 333.4 656.9 15.2 4.1
Total 1 218.3 1 256.3 2 474.6 26.0 15.5
(a) Excludes children aged under five years. (b) Excludes inadequately described languages.
Source: 1996 Census of Population and Housing.