Punjabi
is the Fastest Growing
Language
in Australia
MANPREET
KAUR SINGH
Its
official – Punjabi is the fastest growing language in
Australia
, Hinduism is the fastest growing religion, and Sikhism is among the top
20 religions practiced in the country, according to the census figures
released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics a few days ago.
While
there were only 23,164 Punjabi speakers in
Australia
in 2006, that number has grown by 207% over five years, with 71,230 people
stating Punjabi as their mother language in 2011. Punjabi is now listed
among the top 20 languages spoken in
Australia
(coming in at number 13), as 0.3% of the Australian population speaks the
language. Hindi is included in the top 10 languages, with 111,351
Hindi speakers in
Australia
, representing 0.5% of the entire population.
Victoria
seems
to be preferred by Indians and Punjabis alike, with 2.1% of the state
population being Indian born – a growth of 110% over the last five
years. For the first time ever, the population of Punjabis in
Melbourne
has outnumbered that of
Sydney
, with over 31,000 Punjabi speakers residing in Victoria and 21,704
Punjabis in
New South Wales
.
Queensland
has just under 9,500 Punjabis whereas
South Australia
and
Western Australia
are home to 5,000 Punjabis each.
More
than 80% of Punjabi speakers are first generation migrants who were born
in
India
, whilst 12.5% were born in
Australia
, presumably children of Punjabi migrants. Whilst a handful of Australian
Punjabis were born in quaint countries like
Norway
,
Bahrain
,
Kuwait
,
Zimbabwe
, etc, and 15 even declared an aboriginal status, only 663 Punjabi
speakers of
Australia
were born in
Pakistan
. It is also important to note
that 1.4% of the total Australian population was born in
India
.
Although
Punjabis have been migrating to
Australia
since the 19th century, they’ve only begun to arrive in large
numbers over the last ten years. Historically, British Indians formed 0.1%
of all migrants entering
Australia
in the year 1911, and until the 1970s, only a handful of Indians /
Punjabis ventured their way to the lucky country. But this was a mere
trickle, since the first year that a hundred or more Punjabis came to
Australia
was 1975, and the first year that 1000 or more Punjabis arrived in
Australia
was as recently as 2003! But ever since, there has been a steady wave of
Punjabi arrivals, peaking sharply in 2008, when 12,630 left the land of
the five rivers to come to the land down under.
It is worth noting that the population of Indians in
Australia
has doubled in a matter of five years, the largest component of which is
from Punjab, as the census figures show that 37,389 Punjabi speakers have
arrived in
Australia
between 2006 and 2009 alone!
Hinduism
is now the fastest growing religion of
Australia
, with 275,534 people or 1.3% of the entire population stating that they
are Hindus. Overall, Christianity is the dominant faith in the country,
with 61.1% following it, and people believing in “no religion” are the
second most numerous group – 22.3% of Australians claim to have no
association with any religion or faith. Buddhism comes in at third place,
with 2.5% Australians following it, Islam is fourth (2.2%) and Hinduism
fifth (1.3%).
Sikhism
is predominant religion among Punjabi speakers of
Australia
, with 81% Punjabis (or 57,641 people) stating they are Sikhs. Hinduism
comes second, as 13.3% Punjabis are Hindus, and Islam comes in third,
with1.4%. Sikhism is now included in the top 20 religions practiced in
Australia
, coming in at number 16. A total of 72,296 people in
Australia
practice Sikhism, which equates to 0.3% of the country’s population.
There are more Sikhs in
Victoria
than in NSW and interestingly, Victoria is the only state in which Punjabi
speakers outnumber the Sikh population. In all other states, there are
more Sikhs than the number of Punjabi speakers.
Looking
at the other data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS),
it seems plainly obvious that the recent surge in Indian, especially
Punjabi arrival into
Australia
, is directly attributable to the presence of international students here.
The most common age for Punjabis in
Australia
, both male and female, is 25-29 years. Only
37% of Australian Punjabis are citizens of the country, whereas 60% are
not; only 8% Punjabis own their houses outright, 27% are paying a
mortgage, but nearly half of them, 45%, live in rented houses. These
statistics make a striking contrast with the national average for
Australia
. Even more stark is the fact that 27% of Australian Punjabi women don’t
earn any income, which again, is way above the national Australian
average. Yet, the overall household income of Punjabi households reflects
the national average of $1500-$1999 per week.
All
of the above figures were based on the census carried out by ABS on August
9, 2011, preliminary results of which were released late last week. The
total population of
Australia
, which was deemed to be 21.5 million on that day last year, has already
increased by 1.1 million, to 22.6 million in June this year. Considering
that, the number of Punjabi speakers would already have grown close to
80,000 and other figures can be projected accordingly. To get a detailed
snapshot of Punjabi speakers in the country, visit www.sbs.com.au/punjabi
and to get similar information about any other language or parameter,
visit www.sbs.com.au/census
Manpreet
K Singh
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