Number of Croatian Speakers in Australia Declines

Fewer people speaking Croatian in Australia

In the last 10 years, Australia has lost 6,732 people who speak the Croatian language, according to the latest census results.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has published the results of the 2016 census, and it shows a drop in the number of Croatian speakers residing in Australia, reports SBS.com.au.

One of the questions on the recent census asked residents which languages they spoke in the home, with 56,885 people ticking Croatian. That number is 6,732 fewer than 10 years when 63,617 said they spoke Croatian at home.

The biggest drop in the number of Croatian speakers has come in the last five years with a 7.5% drop since 2011.

Croatian speakers by territory:

New South Wales – 21,156

Victoria – 20,504

Western Australia – 5,556

Queensland – 4,009

South Australia – 3,075

Australian Capital Territory – 2,272

Tasmania – 270

Northern Territory – 43

It is not only Croatian which has seen a decline – also there has been a drop in Macedonian, Greek, Italian and Serbian.

More than 15,800 people said in the census they spoke Bosnian at home.

In Australia over 300 different languages are spoken, which Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arab the most common.