Tamil Australians


Tamil Australians refers to Australians with a Tamil background. It includes people who speak Tamil, those whose ancestors were Tamil or those who identify with Tamil culture. Most Tamil Australians are of Indian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean or Malaysian descent.

Demographics

The Census 2016 has found 73161 people speaking Tamil at home. Out of this 28,055 people are born in India and 27,352 people are born in Sri Lanka. Australian born Tamil speakers are counted as 9,979. The total number of ethnic Tamils are around 150,000 people.
This is the first time Indian Tamils have taken over as the majority over the Sri Lankan Tamils in a foreign country other than the United States. There are no exact figures for the number of Tamil Australians but according to the 2011 census there were 50,151 Australians, 0.23% of the population, who spoke Tamil at home. Tamil speaking Australians are of Indian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean and Malaysian ancestry.
The Census 2016 shows an increase of 50% in Tamil population who speak Tamil at home.
There were 73161 Tamil speakers according to the 2016 Census, with the largest proportion of people across Australia in the suburb of Westmead, followed by Toongabbie .
As per the 2011 census, over 39.59% of Tamil speaking Australians were born in Sri Lanka, 34.89% in India and 13.05% in Australia.
CountryPopulation%
Sri Lanka19,85539.59%
India17,50034.89%
Australia6,54713.05%
Malaysia2,7825.55%
Singapore1,6873.36%
Not stated4450.89%
Other1,3352.66%
Total50,151100.00%

They live concentrated in Wentworthville, Pendle Hill, Girraween, Toongabbie and Strathfield in Sydney and in Glen Waverley and Dandenong North in Melbourne.
State
suburb		StateTamils% of
suburb		% of
Tamils
WentworthvilleNSW1,07310.13%2.14%
Glen WaverleyVIC9452.41%1.88%
DandenongVIC9353.75%1.86%
WestmeadNSW9086.41%1.81%
ToongabbieNSW8536.56%1.70%
Pendle HillNSW84912.74%1.69%
StrathfieldNSW8153.45%1.63%
GirraweenNSW76016.19%1.52%
AuburnNSW6591.99%1.31%
LidcombeNSW6583.95%1.31%
Seven HillsNSW6503.45%1.30%
HomebushNSW5889.49%1.17%
Dandenong NorthVIC5312.42%1.06%

More than 80% have completed high school education; the rate is only 50% for the general Australian population. More than 59% own their houses, compared with more than 67% of the general population.

Tamil Australians