Watch FIFA World Cup 2026™

LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE

Greek is between the most rapidly declining languages in Australia

The number of Australians that speak Greek at home is dropping.

Language Learning
Source: Wikimedia, Stella Park

Between 2001 and 2016, there has been a 11.1% reduction in the number of people who speak greek language at home. In 2001 that number rested around 263.500. Fifteen years later that number is closer to 237.600.

Asia is now Australia's largest source of permanent migrations, accounting for 56 per cent of Australia's migrant intake in the 2016-17 financial year, the latest available figures from the Department of Home Affairs shows.

And Mandarin is the most popular language spoken at home with 597,000 speakers, followed by Arabic with 321,700 and Cantonese with 281,000, according to the latest census.

Across Australia, there are also emerging languages like Nepali that grew from a mere 2,500 in 2001 to 62,000 in 2016.

Similarly, lesser known languages in Australia like Punjabi, Malayalam, and Gujarati are also growing in popularity.

Follow SBS Greek on Facebook

Listen to SBS Greek Podcasts here


1 min read

Published

Updated

By Stergos Kastelloriou



Share this with family and friends


Follow SBS Greek

Download our apps

Listen to our podcasts

Get the latest with our exclusive in-language podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS

Greek News

Watch it onDemand

Stream now