SourceTargetCommunity Atlas
We are Cardinia

Five years. Thousands of new neighbours.

No other kind of change reshapes a council as quickly as migration. Cardinia's Urdu-speaking community has grown by +518% since the last census. It is only one of several.

Our population
116,755
Speak another language
25,574
Languages at home
15+
Growth since last census
+186.8%
Our Urdu-speaking community has grown by +518% in five years. Punjabi, Tamil are not far behind. Walk down any main street on a Saturday and you will hear four languages in as many minutes.
in five years
+518%
Cardinia's Urdu-speaking community grew by this much between censuses, among the largest absolute increases in Victoria.
What makes our community ours
Urdu
779 speakers

Up +518% since the last census. From 126 to 779 speakers.

Punjabi
3,463 speakers

Up +343% since the last census. From 782 to 3,463 speakers.

Tamil
632 speakers

Up +208% since the last census. From 205 to 632 speakers.

The languages of Cardinia

118 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.

Punjabi
3,463 · +342.8%
Sinhalese
2,072 · +174.8%
Hindi
962 · +131.8%
Mandarin
941 · +159.9%
Urdu
779 · +518.3%
Arabic
747 · +60.3%
Spanish
685 · +54.6%
Tamil
632 · +208.3%
Gujarati
542 · +159.3%
Tagalog
444 · +117.6%
Italian
395 · -23.3%
Filipino
358 · +86.5%
Malayalam
348 · +219.3%
Dari
304 · +159.8%
Chin Haka
289 · +775.8%
GROWTH ≥ 50%
≥ 20%
≥ 5%
≥ 0%
≥ -10%
DECLINING
  1. 01
    Punjabi3,463 · 3.0%
    342.8%
  2. 02
    Sinhalese2,072 · 1.8%
    174.8%
  3. 03
    Hindi962 · 0.8%
    131.8%
  4. 04
    Mandarin941 · 0.8%
    159.9%
  5. 05
    Urdu779 · 0.7%
    518.3%
  6. 06
    Arabic747 · 0.6%
    60.3%
  7. 07
    Spanish685 · 0.6%
    54.6%
  8. 08
    Tamil632 · 0.5%
    208.3%
  9. 09
    Gujarati542 · 0.5%
    159.3%
  10. 10
    Tagalog444 · 0.4%
    117.6%
  11. 11
    Italian395 · 0.3%
    23.3%
  12. 12
    Filipino358 · 0.3%
    86.5%
Fastest-growing among us
Chin Haka
+775.8% since last census

Growth this fast means services designed from the 2016 census are already out of date. This Atlas is our honest attempt to keep the picture current, for our own planning, for the agencies that partner with us, and for the families still arriving every year.

Our suburbs
Where we are
In context
Cardinia
21.9%
Victoria
32.6%
Australia
27.3%

21.9% of Cardinia residents speak a language other than English at home, against 32.6% for Victoria and 27.3% nationally. Drawn from the 2021 census.