Tale of Two Multilingual Cities in a Multilingual Continent (Sydney and Melbourne, Australia) (Statistical Table‪)‬

Australia is becoming an increasingly multilingual nation, with the 2006 census recording 16.8 per cent of the population speaking a language other than English (LOTE) in their homes, compared with 14.8 per cent in 1991 and 16.2 per cent in 2001. In Australia's largest two cities the proportion is even greater, with 31.4 per cent of Sydneysiders and 27.9 per cent of Melbournians speaking a LOTE at home. The proportion is rising somewhat faster in Sydney (up 2.2 per cent from 2001) than in Melbourne (a rise of one per cent over the same period). As in previous censuses since 1986 these statistics underestimate the actual use of LOTEs, excluding as they do people who do not have anyone to speak to at home and those who speak a LOTE regularly but not in their own home. It is not clear how many languages are actually used because of the way in which the question on languages is processed by the census, with a number of umbrella categories in place such as 'Finnish and Related Languages, not elsewhere classified', 'Other Southeast Asian languages' or, in the Indigenous context, 'Northern River Fringe languages' and 'Kimberley Area Languages'. It would appear however that there are between 350 and 400 languages currently spoken in Australia, including 150 to 155 indigenous ones. The 2006 census has processed individually far more indigenous languages than in 2001, when only 64 were recorded. The most widely used are Arrente (2834 home users), Pidjintjatjara (2657) and Walpiri (2507).