SourceTargetCommunity Atlas
We are Adelaide

We are Adelaide.

Home to one of the larger Mandarin-speaking communities in South Australia, and 68 other language communities besides.

Our population
24,358
Speak another language
10,400
Languages at home
15+
Growth since last census
+27.4%
69 languages are spoken at home in Adelaide. Mandarin leads (3,440 speakers), with Cantonese close behind (818). 43 per cent of us speak a language other than English at home. That is the measure of a community that has not left its languages behind.
speak Mandarin at home
3,440
Our largest community language, Mandarin, is spoken by 14.1% of Adelaide residents at home.
What makes our community ours
Mandarin
3,440 speakers

3,440 speakers, 14.1% of Adelaide. +6% since 2021.

Cantonese
818 speakers

818 speakers, 3.4% of Adelaide. +6% since 2021.

Vietnamese
424 speakers

424 speakers, 1.7% of Adelaide. +80% since 2021.

The languages of Adelaide

69 languages carry the conversation at home. Every one of them is spoken here.

Each block below is scaled to the number of people who speak that language at home, and tinted by how fast that community has grown since the last census.

Mandarin
3,440 · +6.0%
Cantonese
818 · +6.2%
Vietnamese
424
Hindi
317
Korean
Spanish
236 · +6.8%
Greek
226 · +0.4%
Arabic
211 · -36.4%
Italian
200 · -10.3%
Persian (excluding Dari)
145 · +29.5%
Japanese
124
French
118
Portuguese
115
Tagalog
112
Filipino
94
GROWTH ≥ 50%
≥ 20%
≥ 5%
≥ 0%
≥ -10%
DECLINING
  1. 01
    Mandarin3,440 · 14.1%
    6.0%
  2. 02
    Cantonese818 · 3.4%
    6.2%
  3. 03
    Vietnamese424 · 1.7%
    79.7%
  4. 04
    Hindi317 · 1.3%
    82.2%
  5. 05
    Korean293 · 1.2%
    3.3%
  6. 06
    Spanish236 · 1.0%
    6.8%
  7. 07
    Greek226 · 0.9%
    0.4%
  8. 08
    Arabic211 · 0.9%
    36.4%
  9. 09
    Italian200 · 0.8%
    10.3%
  10. 10
    Persian (excluding Dari)145 · 0.6%
    29.5%
  11. 11
    Japanese124 · 0.5%
    10.8%
  12. 12
    French118 · 0.5%
    9.3%
Fastest-growing among us
Tagalog
+194.7% since last census

We publish this so our residents can see themselves counted, and so the agencies, funders and neighbours who serve us can see who we actually serve. Language access is not a translation line-item in our budget. It is how an emergency notice reaches a grandparent, how an enrolment form is understood, and how a health campaign actually lands in the suburbs that make up our council.

Our suburbs

Our linguistic character changes street by street. Click through to any suburb for its own portrait: the languages spoken there, the communities calling it home.

Where we are
In context
Adelaide
42.7%
South Australia
20.5%
Australia
27.3%

42.7% of Adelaide residents speak a language other than English at home, against 20.5% for South Australia and 27.3% nationally. Drawn from the 2021 census.