The data shows that there were 596,708 people who spoke Mandarin at home, while there were 280,939 Cantonese speakers, 108,993 Korean speakers and 55,953 Japanese speakers.
Occupation differences
The jobs held by immigrants from these countries in Australia differed.
More Mandarin and Cantonese speakers worked as accountants and sales assistants.
In the case of Korean speakers, more people worked as chefs and it was followed by commercial cleaners while more Japanese speakers worked as sales assistants and chefs.
Among the questions asked in the Census was about proficiency to speak English, or whether a respondent was 'confident in his or her use of English'.
A snap from ABS data, highlighting the occupations of each culture. Source: ABC Australia
The highest percentage of people who said they spoke English well were Japanese speakers, followed by Cantonese speakers, Mandarin speakers and Korean speakers.
Firstly, 53.5 per cent of Japanese speakers said they speak English very well, while only 2.3 per cent said they do not speak English at all.
Source: SBS
Next, 45.1 per cent of Cantonese speakers said they speak English very well, and 6.5 per cent said they do not speak English at all.
34.5 per cent of Mandarin speakers said they speak English very well, and 6.8 per cent said they do not speak English at all.
Lastly, 32.6 per cent of Korean speakers said they speak English very well, and 4.6 per cent said they do not speak English at all.
School education
Among immigrants from the three countries, Korean speakers finished their Year 12 studies (or equivalent) with the highest percentage.
The stats showed that 91.1 per cent of Korean speakers finished their Year 12 studies (or equivalent) while 89.6 per cent of Japanese speakers finished their Year 12 studies. It also showed that 86.5 per cent of Mandarin speakers finished their Year 12 studies while 72.3% of Cantonese speakers finished their Year 12 studies. This was more than the 56.8 per cent of the general population in Australia who finished their Year 12 studies.
Source: SBS
Also, the ratio of people with bachelor degrees was the highest among Korean speakers. 53.2 per cent of Korean speakers had bachelor degrees, followed by Cantonese speakers with 50.1 per cent, Japanese speakers 47.8 per cent, and Mandarin speakers at 47.1 per cent.
Finally, the highest percentage of people with postgraduate degrees was Mandarin speakers at 28.8 per cent followed by Cantonese speakers, 16.7 per cent, Japanese speakers 12.9 per cent, and Korean speakers 12.5 per cent, compared to 9.7 per cent have a postgraduate degree of people in Australia.
