The recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Melbourne has highlighted the need for good data at a local level for planning the response effort. It has been reported that people from non-English speaking backgrounds (CALD communities) may not be receiving key messages about social distancing and other methods to slow the spread of the virus. The Census collects information on language spoken at home and the level of English proficiency. Using these variables, this blog shows how Census data provides the evidence base to inform responses at the local level.
What are the main languages spoken in Melbourne?
2016 Census data shows that there are more than 200 languages spoken in Greater Melbourne and almost one-third of the population spoke a language other than English at home. More than 250,000 people have poor English proficiency, comprising 5.6% of the population but this differs widely by culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community.
The chart below shows the main languages spoken in Greater Melbourne in 2016. It may surprise some people that Mandarin is the main non-English language spoken in Greater Melbourne, with almost 185,000 speakers. Greek is a distant second (107,392 speakers), followed by Italian and Vietnamese.
The chart also shows the number and proportion of people with poor or no English proficiency in each language group. Vietnamese speakers have the highest proportion of people with poor English proficiency (30.9%), followed by Mandarin (25.2%) and Cantonese (23.9%). On the other hand, only about five per cent of Hindi and Sinhalese speakers had poor English proficiency.
The Burmese community
Although the main languages spoken provides a useful starting point for determining how to engage with CALD communities, the level of English proficiency provides an additional level of critical information. There are CALD communities where there is an extremely high level of poor English proficiency. For instance, there are almost 14,000 speakers of various Burmese languages in Greater Melbourne, and around half of them have poor English proficiency. Aside from Burmese (4,000 speakers) the main languages in the Burmese group are Karen (3,480 speakers) and Chin Haka (3,130 speakers).
The Burmese community are an emerging CALD community, with more than 90% of the 2016 population arriving in Australia in the previous ten years. Many arrive in Australia through the humanitarian visa stream. Since 2016-17 the population of Burmese speakers has grown considerably, with data from the Department of Home Affairs indicating almost 6,000 visa arrivals since that time.
The map below shows the distribution of Burmese language speakers with poor English proficiency in Greater Melbourne in 2016. The data was extracted in ABS Tablebuilder for SA2s and the dots were randomly distributed across those spatial units in order to show concentrations.
Burmese language speakers with poor English proficiency are highly concentrated in three main areas of Greater Melbourne - Springvale in the south-east, Ringwood and Croydon in the east, and an arc through the western suburbs extending from Sunshine, through to the Werribee/Hoppers Crossing area. There are also smaller pockets in the SA2s of Fawkner, Heidelberg and parts of Melton. Interestingly, Burmese communities in the west are more likely to be Karen speakers, while those in the east are Chin Haka speakers.
The SA2 with the highest number of Burmese language speakers with poor English proficiency is Springvale (746 people). It is one of the most culturally diverse areas in Australia, with well established south-east Asian communities. Census data shows that about three-quarters of the population speak a language other than English at home, and about one-third in total have poor English proficiency.
With regard to public health messaging, this type of data provides a where and how much perspective for service planning. This ensures that the right areas are targetted with appropriate messaging in key languages to ensure that the correct advice is received and understood by all community members. This includes printed and online material, as well as the involvement of community leaders.
This case study also shows how combining variables from the Census provides a more complete picture of a CALD community. Further insights can be obtained by looking at other variables such as year of arrival, household size, and education level.
Summary
There are about 200 languages spoken by Greater Melbourne's population and more than 250,000 people have poor English proficiency. On its own, language spoken provides the basis for determining how to engage with CALD communities, but combining this with proficiency in English provides better insights. For instance, there are around 14,000 speakers of Burmese languages in Greater Melbourne, and half of them have poor English proficiency. They are also highly concentrated into three main areas, providing the opportunity to develop more localised responses to the current COVID-19 crisis.
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