Mandarin now second most spoken language in Australia

The latest Australia census data shows that the population of Australia has reached 24.4 million, 1.21 of them are Chinese immigrants. This means that Mandarin has become the second most spoken language in Australia behind English, according to a BBC report. 

Photo shows the streetview of Chinatown in Sydney. [Photo: VCG]

In the past five years, the Australia population has increased by 2 million, the majority of whom were Chinese immigrants, with most living in the bustling urban areas, such as New South Wales. 

Meanwhile, according to the data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, nearly one-third of the Australia population lived in the capital city as of December 2016, the country is facing the problems of an ageing population, and Asian immigrants have taken the traditional place of Europeans.

Australia has over 24 million people, and nearly half of them were born overseas, or one of their parents was born overseas. Compared to the increased percentage of Chinese immigrants, the European immigrant’s percentage has dropped from 52% to 34% from 2001 to 2016.