SourceTargetCommunity Atlas
We are Forbes

We are Forbes.

Home to one of the larger Malayalam-speaking communities in New South Wales, and 22 other language communities besides.

Our population
9,532
Speak another language
967
Languages at home
15+
Growth since last census
+39.2%
23 languages are spoken at home in Forbes. Malayalam leads (21 speakers), with Italian close behind (21). 10 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 Malayalam at home
21
Our largest community language, Malayalam, is spoken by 0.2% of Forbes residents at home.
What makes our community ours
Malayalam
21 speakers

21 speakers, 0.2% of Forbes. +40% since 2021.

Italian
21 speakers

21 speakers, 0.2% of Forbes. -19% since 2021.

Mandarin
14 speakers

14 speakers, 0.1% of Forbes. +250% since 2021.

The languages of Forbes

23 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.

Malayalam
21 · +40.0%
Italian
21 · -19.2%
Mandarin
14 · +250.0%
Cantonese
14 · +7.7%
German
12 · 0.0%
Tagalog
11 · +175.0%
Gujarati
10 · 0.0%
Filipino
9 · -25.0%
Sinhalese
8 · 0.0%
Nepali
8 · +14.3%
Wiradjuri
6 · -62.5%
Afrikaans
6 · -25.0%
Greek
5 · 0.0%
Khmer
4 · 0.0%
French
4 · 0.0%
GROWTH ≥ 50%
≥ 20%
≥ 5%
≥ 0%
≥ -10%
DECLINING
  1. 01
    Malayalam21 · 0.2%
    40.0%
  2. 02
    Italian21 · 0.2%
    19.2%
  3. 03
    Mandarin14 · 0.1%
    250.0%
  4. 04
    Cantonese14 · 0.1%
    7.7%
  5. 05
    German12 · 0.1%
    0.0%
  6. 06
    Tagalog11 · 0.1%
    175.0%
  7. 07
    Gujarati10 · 0.1%
    0.0%
  8. 08
    Filipino9 · 0.1%
    25.0%
  9. 09
    Sinhalese8 · 0.1%
    0.0%
  10. 10
    Nepali8 · 0.1%
    14.3%
  11. 11
    Wiradjuri6 · 0.1%
    62.5%
  12. 12
    Afrikaans6 · 0.1%
    25.0%
Fastest-growing among us
Mandarin
+250.0% 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
Forbes
10.1%
New South Wales
31.4%
Australia
27.3%

10.1% of Forbes residents speak a language other than English at home, against 31.4% for New South Wales and 27.3% nationally. Drawn from the 2021 census.