April 24, 2008 in Multiculturalism by admin

Tagalog is eighth language in Australia, second in Blacktown

THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS in latest Census reported that Tagalog (Filipino) is the eighth non-English language spoken at Australian homes.

The Census, taken in 2006, also reported that of the 18.9 million respondents, 15% or 2,853,851 reported as speaking a non-English in their homes.

The seven other non-English languages are Italian (12.4%), Greek (9.2%), Cantonese (7.9%), Arabic (7.3%), Vietnamese (6.1%), Mandarin (4.9%) and Spanish (3.3%).

Tagalog (Filipino) accounted for 2.8% of the relevant respondents group. German ranked number nine followed with a close 2.7% of the respondents group.

By region, Blacktown has reported to have the highest concentration of Census respondents speaking Tagalog (Filipino). The ABS statistics revealed that 5.7% of the people in the region speak the language at home. Arabic followed a distant 3.2% second non-English language spoken in the region.

The reported ranking of Tagalog (Filipino) as a non-English language spoken in Australia compares favourably with that in the United States.

According to the 1990 and 2000 United States Census, Tagalog is the sixth non-English language spoken in America, and the second most commonly-spoken Asian language (after Chinese) in the United States. #