Schools: Language Diversity in NSW, 2016

CESE BULLETIN ISSUE 17

Schools:

Language Diversity in NSW, 2016

Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation

This bulletin summarises the diversity of students with a language background other than English (LBOTE) who are enrolled in NSW government schools in 2016.

Introduction

In 2016, 66.9 per cent of students who are enrolled in NSW government schools come from homes where English is the only language (see Figure 1). The 2016 collection of language background data shows that about one third (33.1 per cent) of students in NSW government schools come from homes where languages other than English are spoken.

The proportion of LBOTE (see definition on page 11) students rose by 0.8 percentage points from 2015 and 1.6 percentage point from 2014.

Figure 1

Language background of students in NSW government schools in 2016

English speaking

only 66.9%

Languages other than English 33.1%

Figure 2 Top ten language background other than English, 2006-2016

45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000

5,000 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

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Chinese Arabic Vietnamese Hindi Greek Filipino/Tagalog Samoan Korean Spanish Italian

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Top ten language backgrounds of LBOTE students in NSW government schools

The largest single language group of LBOTE students in 2016 is Arabic (35,732 students) and the largest combined language group is Chinese, which comprises Mandarin, Cantonese and Other Chinese language backgrounds (42,259), see Figures 2 and 3.

In 2016 the top ten languages represent nearly 60 per cent of all LBOTE students.

Since 2006, the top three language groups have grown significantly, with Chinese growing 15.5 per cent, while Arabic and Vietnamese have grown 37.7 per cent and 22.6 per cent respectively over that period. Hindi has had the largest percentage growth over the period of 45.5 per cent.

Figure 2 shows that the top 10 languages in NSW have not changed since 2006, however the order of the largest language groups has changed. Italian has slipped from the seventh largest language in 2006 to the tenth in 2016, while Hindi has moved from sixth to fourth position.

Figure 3 Language background diversity in NSW government schools, 2016

Other Language Groups, 19,893

Mandarin, 23,862

Cantonese, 15,775

Other Chinese, 2,622

Arabic, 35,732

Vietnamese, 15,709

Hindi, 10,793

Spanish, 7,480 Korean, 8,005

Filipino/Tagalog, 9,241 Greek, 8,920 Samoan, 8,336

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What are the language backgrounds of our students?

There are 226 different language backgrounds of LBOTE students at NSW government schools but only 43 languages have more than 1,000 LBOTE students enrolled. 183 languages are included in the `Other Language Groups'.

After Chinese and Arabic the next largest language background is Vietnamese, followed by Hindi and Filipino/Tagalog. Three European language backgrounds, Greek, Spanish and Italian, also feature in the top ten language backgrounds.

In March 2016, there were 260,599 NSW government primary and secondary students identified as having a language background other than English, which comprises 33.1 per cent of the 786,248 NSW government school students overall.

Table 1

Enrolments of students of language background other than English by language 2015 and 2016 (by largest language groups in 2016).

Language

Chinese: Mandarin Cantonese

Other Chinese Arabic Vietnamese Hindi Filipino/Tagalog Greek Samoan Korean Spanish Italian Urdu Tamil Bengali Tongan Indonesian Punjabi Macedonian Turkish Japanese Assyrian & Chaldean Thai German French Serbian Gujarati Persian (Excluding Dari) Dari Russian Khmer Nepali Maori (New Zealand) Portugese Telugu Malayalam Sinhalese Croatian Fijian Dutch Afrikaans Maori (Cook Island) Marathi Polish Lao Other Language Groups Total

2015

Students

% of Total LBOTE

41,379

16.5%

22,696

9.0%

16,339

6.5%

2,344

0.9%

34,302

13.6%

15,593

6.2%

10,240

4.1%

8,991

3.6%

9,111

3.6%

8,034

3.2%

7,878

3.1%

7,166

2.9%

5,530

2.2%

4,467

1.8%

4,366

1.7%

3,950

1.6%

4,207

1.7%

4,055

1.6%

3,579

1.4%

3,913

1.6%

3,761

1.5%

3,118

1.2%

3,139

1.2%

2,968

1.2%

3,046

1.2%

2,880

1.1%

3,074

1.2%

2,570

1.0%

2,862

1.1%

2,529

1.0%

2,396

1.0%

2,427

1.0%

1,971

0.8%

2,149

0.9%

1,876

0.7%

1,587

0.6%

1,604

0.6%

1,773

0.7%

1,598

0.6%

1,519

0.6%

1,366

0.5%

1,299

0.5%

1,205

0.5%

1,023

0.4%

1,010

0.4%

1,024

0.4%

18,801

7.5%

251,336

100%

2016

Students

% of Total LBOTE

42,259

16.2%

23,862

9.2%

15,775

6.1%

2,622

1.0%

35,732

13.7%

15,709

6.0%

10,793

4.1%

9,241

3.5%

8,920

3.4%

8,336

3.2%

8,005

3.1%

7,480

2.9%

5,408

2.1%

5,006

1.9%

4,696

1.8%

4,451

1.7%

4,264

1.6%

4,164

1.6%

3,992

1.5%

3,846

1.5%

3,717

1.4%

3,273

1.3%

3,229

1.2%

3,140

1.2%

3,096

1.2%

3,037

1.2%

3,029

1.2%

2,968

1.1%

2,908

1.1%

2,646

1.0%

2,577

1.0%

2,501

1.0%

2,279

0.9%

2,163

0.8%

2,047

0.8%

1,904

0.7%

1,783

0.7%

1,761

0.7%

1,616

0.6%

1,529

0.6%

1,401

0.5%

1,356

0.5%

1,194

0.5%

1,130

0.4%

1,111

0.4%

1,009

0.4%

19,893

7.6%

260,599

100%

Notes: 1. The table is ordered by the largest language groups for language groups with 1,000 or more

students in 2016. Language groups with fewer than 1,000 students in 2016 are included in `Other Language Groups'. 2. See the definition of LBOTE on page 11 for the reporting rule used to determine the language background for students from households where multiple languages are spoken. 3. See page 11 for other explanatory notes.

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Where are LBOTE students in NSW?

Map 1 shows the concentration of LBOTE students across NSW, using a geographical structure based on the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). ASGS Statistical Area 4 (SA4) boundaries in New South Wales have been combined into 11 groups for reporting and publication of department data.

As Map 1 illustrates the concentration of students from LBOTE backgrounds is greater in the Sydney metropolitan area than in

other parts of NSW. Across all Sydney schools 52 per cent of the students have a language background other than English.

Sydney-West has the highest LBOTE student enrolment of 53,926 representing 65.5 per cent of all students enrolled. North West NSW has the lowest LBOTE student enrolment of 2,914 representing 4.3 per cent of all students enrolled.

Map 1 LBOTE Percentage of enrolments in a Statistical Area (SA4) grouping, March 2016

North West NSW

North East NSW

South West NSW

LBOTE Percentage of Enrolments

50% or more 30% to 50% 10% to 30% Less than 10%

Central Coast, Newcastle

SydneyNorth West

SydneyWest

South East NSW

Sydney- South West

SydneyNorth

SydneyInner

SydneySouth

Location of LBOTE students from different language backgrounds

Nearly 60 per cent of all LBOTE students are located in SydneyWest, Sydney-South or Sydney-South West. However, there are significant pockets of students from various language backgrounds located in other areas as shown in Table 2. For example, students from Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, and French language backgrounds are more likely to be located in Sydney-North, whereas students from Italian, Thai and Russian language backgrounds are more likely to be located in Sydney-Inner.

Many students from Indian language backgrounds are located in Sydney-West, which has the largest proportions of students from Hindi (35.9%), Urdu (35.5%), Tamil (49.5%), Punjabi

(48.5%), and Gujarati (67.5%) language backgrounds. SydneyWest also has the largest proportion of students from Persian (excluding Dari) and Dari language backgrounds.

Sydney-South West contains almost all students from Assyrian and Chaldean (89.7%), Khmer (83.8%) and Lao (79.6%) language backgrounds, plus the largest concentrations of students with Vietnamese (54.3%), Serbian (49.4%) and Samoan (47.9%) language backgrounds.

Sydney-South has the largest proportions of students from Arabic (38.1%), Greek (46.6%), Bengali (28.7%), Indonesian (24.2%) and Macedonian (41.0%) language backgrounds.

The only language background with a significant concentration of students outside the Sydney metropolitan area is Macedonian with 27.2 per cent of these students located in South East NSW.

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SydneyNorth SydneyInner SydneySouth SydneySouth West SydneyWest SydneyNorth West North East NSW North West NSW South West NSW South East NSW Central Coast , Newcastle

Table 2 LBOTE enrolments by language and Statistical Area 4 Groupings and number of language groups - March 2016

Language

Total State LBOTE

As % of Total LBOTE

Chinese:

Mandarin Cantonese Other Chinese Arabic Vietnamese Hindi Filipino/Tagalog Greek Samoan Korean Spanish Italian Urdu Tamil Bengali Tongan Indonesian Punjabi Macedonian Turkish Japanese Assyrian & Chaldean Thai German French Serbian Gujarati Persian Excluding Dari Dari Russian Khmer Nepali Maori (New Zealand) Portuguese Telugu Malayalam Sinhalese Croatian Fijian Dutch Afrikaans Maori (Cook Island) Marathi Polish Lao Other Language Groups

Total LBOTE

No. of different language groups

12,139

7,759 3,989

391 718 573 1,314 890 589

68 3,075 1,022

773 281 473 240 238 604 256

78 163 1,380

16 512 861 1,041 279 217 741 114 548

49 237

82 455 235 239 348 195

56 477 331

24 182 237

30

2,621

35,001

151

7,403

4,354 2,711

338 1,599 1,747

684 736 1,692 114 1,615 1,090 1,230 324 644 651 370 913 138 121 561 593

91 554 517 572 217 135 140

90 740

44 340 133 414 255 158

79 119 120 190

55 88 75 137 17

2,381

29,886

164

7,657

4,016 3,385

256 13,601

2,688 727 936

4,161 760 401 868 616

1,115 148

1,276 550

1,006 214

1,578 362 351 70 430 224 269 266 138 136 100 396 72 607 410 345 73 135 59 227 288 104 96 289 66 126 43

2,245

46,229

165

3,826

1,076 1,779

971 8,447 8,534 2,431 1,143

786 3,993

67 1,949 1,012

669 279 942 1,073 368 343 600 490

79 2,898

392 114 130 1,495

93 228 168 142 2,097 204 373 216 115 274 117 397 325

28 97 204 278 137 803

2,744

51,100

165

6,380

3,664 2,371

345 9,052 1,363 3,874 2,682

489 2,246 1,620

683 313 1,777 2,324 894 1,343 523 1,936

84 1,586

176 85

263 85

191 199 2,004 1,051 1,847 235 106 534 425 143 947 548 488 192 359

55 67 321 361 114 28

3,933

53,926

172

3,323

2,171 1,021

131 928 272 1,269 992 407 531 866 610 406 569 678 249 223 282 536

43 236 150

57 152 227 152 143 250 445 151 202

46 111 157

90 201 258 503 183

54 132 251

49 127 124

16

1,623

18,274

159

129

54 52 23 65 51 45 276 65 37 21 233 110 15

8 9 26 96 264 5 23 189 1 196 325 197 7 11 12 69 42 10 6 100 74 1 12 13 21 32 99 44 6 7 35 8

887

3,882

131

133

62 61 10 114 60 61 376 48 55 15 73 67 47 37 37 28 23 37

3 16 40

4 91 89 65 14 18

7 11 39

1 39 88 47 13 26 23 17 38 51 113 22

7 22

7

792

2,914

127

145

62 55 28 125 35 85 280 63 239 14 100 226 69 28 43 131 20 164 10 37 36

101 74 56 22 41 35 32 42 13

141 97 16 17 20 38 23

137 40 99 78 7 8 25

584

3,596

132

454

266 122

66 836 211 119 436 378 100

81 432 377

73 19 44 113 143 60 1,048 203 114

4 235 306 164 315

27 74 11 69 19 32 165 157 19 56 49 162 42 121 85 94

5 73 21

1,086

8,632

152

670 42,259 16.2%

378 23,862 9.2% 229 15,775 6.1%

63 2,622 1.0% 247 35,732 13.7% 175 15,709 6.0% 184 10,793 4.1% 494 9,241 3.5% 242 8,920 3.4% 193 8,336 3.2% 230 8,005 3.1% 420 7,480 2.9% 278 5,408 2.1%

67 5,006 1.9% 58 4,696 1.8% 66 4,451 1.7% 169 4,264 1.6% 186 4,164 1.6% 44 3,992 1.5% 276 3,846 1.5% 40 3,717 1.4% 165 3,273 1.3%

3 3,229 1.2% 214 3,140 1.2% 274 3,096 1.2% 200 3,037 1.2%

72 3,029 1.2% 34 2,968 1.1% 39 2,908 1.1% 53 2,646 1.0% 122 2,577 1.0% 44 2,501 1.0% 28 2,279 0.9% 133 2,163 0.8% 90 2,047 0.8% 28 1,904 0.7% 57 1,783 0.7% 44 1,761 0.7% 80 1,616 0.6% 78 1,529 0.6% 104 1,401 0.5% 118 1,356 0.5% 19 1,194 0.5% 15 1,130 0.4% 98 1,111 0.4% 11 1,009 0.4%

997 19,893 7.6%

7,159 260,599 100%

144

226

Notes: 1. The table is ordered by the largest language groups for languages with 1,000 or more students in 2016. 2. See page 11 for other explanatory notes.

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