Kurdish Australians: where do they come from and where do they live?

According to the 2016 Census data there are 6,199 people that speak the Kurdish language at home in Australia. However, 10,535 claim to have Kurdish ancestry. The new data also shows that there are more Kurdish males than females in Australia, based on those who speak Kurdish at home. Over half of Kurdish speakers identify themselves as Muslims (61.1%), followed by those who claim to have no religion (31.5%). Census 2016 shows that most Kurdish Speakers were born in Iraq (33.3%), followed by Iran (25.4%). Below you will find more interesting statistics about Kurds in Australia.

Australian and Kurdish Flags Source: Magic Touch Weddings

Gender

Proportion male and female

Religion

Religious affiliation

Birthplace of parents

Country of birth

Australian citizenship

What we do

School education

Highest level of school completed

56.2% of Kurdish speakersfinished their Year 12 studies (or equivalent). This was less than the 56.8% of the general population who finished their Year 12 studies.

The graph above does not include:

• 159: Not stated
• 1,269: Not applicable

How we live

Location

Proportion of population

There were 5,917Kurdish speakers according to the 2016 Census, with the largest proportion of people across Australia in the suburb ofLiverpool(182 people, or0.5%of people in that suburb), followed by Epping (Vic.) (159 people, or0.4%of people in that suburb).

The following map shows how many people are located in each suburb. Click on the map for more detail.

Social marital status

For more about Kurds in Australia and other languages can be found in the SBS Census Explorer.