Profiling culturally diverse communities in NSW

How can you profile and visualize cultural diversity within a state? The Multicultural New South Wales profile is now available to everyone. It provides a range of information on the culturally diverse population of New South Wales. Using data from the 2011 and 2006 Census, it details key social and economic characteristics of communities living across the State.

To see the new Multicultural NSW site, go to http://multiculturalnsw.id.com.au/

The Multicultural NSW community profile contains detailed information on the characteristics, locations and living arrangements of

• Over 100 different Ancestry groups
• Over 80 languages
• Over 50 religions
• 12 birthplaces (where communities can’t be readily identified from one of the other categories)

For each community, you can see:

• A map of the geographic distribution of that group across NSW.
• A comparison of age structure of the group to the NSW average and over time.
• Education levels and attendance.
• Employment status and occupations
• Household type
• Housing tenure and dwelling type
• Birthplace, language, religion and ancestry for each group
• Year of arrival in Australia and proficiency in English.

Every group has a different migration and settlement story to tell, and this site enables you to tell them. Just a few of the interesting facts to come out of the profile:

• Liverpool has the highest percentage Hindi speakers of any LGA in NSW. There is almost an even split between the birthplaces of Hindi speakers, with 42% born in India, and 37% born in Fiji, with another 17% born in Australia.
• Almost a quarter (22.6%) of those with Nepalese ancestry were attending university.
• 75% of those of Afghan ancestry lived in couple families with children (50% for the total population).
• 10% of the population of the regional centre of Griffith speak Italian at home while 26% have Italian ancestry, the highest in the state!
• 40% of those with Maori ancestry were under the age of 20, making them one of the youngest communities in NSW.
• Sikhism is the fastest growing religion, Lutheran among the oldest, while Jainism is one of the youngest.
• Buddhism is the largest religious group for those born in China, but this only accounted for 18% of thepopulation. 60% of those born in China had no religion.
• Strathfield Council tops the state for those with Indian ancestry (9.5% of population), and a massive 54% of those with Indian ancestry in NSW have bachelor degrees, indicative of skilled migration.

Use this link to get to the Multicultural NSW profile

When you’re on the site, use the left-hand menu to select an Ancestry, Language, Birthplace or Religion grouping, and then select your specific group from the list. You can then change this group in the topics by using the control panel.

As with all .id products, all the data, maps and charts can be exported to Excel, Word and image files, and you can also generate custom reports from the site, with a range of topics for a particular community. For some of the nationalities there is also some text telling a bit of the background to this community within New South Wales.

So please make use of this fantastic resource for NSW, which Multicultural NSW and .id have made publicly accessible! If you would like to learn more about the communities of interest within your area, visit our website here.

About this project: .id have just partnered with Multicultural NSW to deliver our most ambitious “Communities of Interest” project yet. Multicultural NSW is a state government body charged with supporting and maintaining a cohesive multicultural community across New South Wales, engaging with diverse communities and advising on government policy as it relates to migration and multiculturalism. They support a number of community programs and provide briefings on the characteristics of communities to a wide range of organisations and individuals, including embassies and consulates.