According to Census 2016 data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a total of 455, 385 people born in India currently reside in Australia. This corresponds to an increase of 54 per cent of India-born people in Australia, over the past five years.
2.1 per cent of Australia’s population was born in India, with India being the fifth most popular country of birth among all Australians.
Punjabi is the most common language spoken by people born in India, with over 22 per cent of all India-born Australians stating in Census 2016 that they speak Punjabi at home.
Hindi, Malayalam and Gujarati are second, third and fourth in this list of Indian-born speakers in Australia, according to the ABS.
A total of 102,661 India born people identified Punjabi as their mother tongue, making Punjabi the most common language spoken by Australians born in India. With a total of 132,000 Punjabi speakers in Australia, almost four in five (over 78 per cent) were born in India.
The second most common language spoken by Australians born in India is Hindi, with 98,623 declaring in Census 2016 that they were born in India and speak Hindi at home. This corresponds to 62.4 per cent Hindi speakers being born in India, and more than one in five ( 21.4 percent) born in Fiji.
Just over 40,000 or 76.6 percent of Malayalam speakers in Australia were born in India, whilst 38,256 migrants said they spoke Gujarati at home, making it the fourth-most spoken language among Indian Australians.
In the past decade, the Punjabi population of Australia has increased five-fold, with a majority of them choosing Victoria as their state of choice in Australia.
Analysing the six Indian subcontinental languages available via ABS Quick Stats, Punjabi is the most spoken language of them all in Victoria. According the Census 2016 data, 31,523 males and 24,645 females in Victoria, speak Punjabi.
In a briefing provided by the Australian Buruea of Statistics on Thursday July 7, Punjabi is now the seventh most spoken language in Melbourne, after English. It is spoken by 1.2% of Melbourne's population, and is the most popular Indian sub-continental language, followed by Hindi and Sinhalese.
Indian subcontinental languages spoke in Victoria, according to Census 2016 Source: SBS Punjabi
Punjabi language is the seventh most language spoken in Melbourne, after English Source: ABS
Indian subcontinental languages spoken in WA, as stated in ABS Quick Stats Source: SBS Punjabi
Comparison of six subcontinental languages spoken in SA, as revealed in Census 2016 Source: SBS Punjabi
Data for six Indian subcontinental languages spoken in Queensland Source: SBS Punjabi
The number of Punjabi speakers in each state and territory of Australia Source: ABS
Map charting the number of Hindus in Australia, as per Census 2016 Source: SBS Punjabi
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