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, making it the second language after English. 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. #

Ed’s Notes: This article is based on research conducted by Compucentric Consulting.

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