Census data on country of birth, ancestry, languages spoken at home and religion across Australia. It is the key source for describing the size and make-up of multicultural and multifaith communities.
Resource type: Dataset / statistics
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Cultural and Linguistic Characteristics of People Using Mental Health Services and Prescription Medications, 2011
Links 2011 Census data with Medicare (MBS) and PBS records to show who uses subsidised mental health services and medicines. People who spoke a language other than English at home were less likely to use Medicare mental health services, and use was especially low among people born in Asian countries.
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Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA): The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants
A ten-year study (2013–14 to 2023) that followed about 2,400 people who arrived on humanitarian visas, covering settlement, health and mental health. Researchers can apply to use the data, and it underpins many Australian refugee mental health studies.
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Chronic health conditions among culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, 2021
Uses 2021 Census data to compare long-term health conditions, including mental health conditions, by country of birth and language. Overseas-born groups reported similar or lower rates of mental health conditions than the Australian-born.
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Suicide & self-harm monitoring: Migrants and refugees
National data on suicide among people who came to Australia as humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants. Rates were lower than for the whole population but rose with time spent in Australia, and humanitarian entrants had higher rates than other permanent migrants.
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National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–2022
Australia’s main survey of how common mental disorders are; about one in five people (21.5%) had a mental disorder in the past year. The headline release does not break results down by country of birth or language, but researchers can apply for the detailed microdata.