ITALIAN continues to be the most common language other than English spoken at home in Wattle Range, census data has revealed.
The latest statistics of the 2016 National Census show the region is overwhelmingly monolingual, with 91pc of people only speaking English at home.
Individuals reporting speaking Italian at home in Millicent has decreased in the last decade from 75 people in 2006 to 55 people in 2016, but it remains the most common language spoken in the township apart from English.
Italian is most commonly spoken in Southend with almost 4pc of the population reporting speaking the language at home.
Millicent resident Storm Brooks is among the 83 people in the council district speaking Italian at home after learning the language in high school.
The 18-year-old has been speaking the language for almost five years and is planning to travel to Italy in future.
“When I got to high school, I found Italian to be such a beautiful language to listen to and speak,” she said.
“I love the way it sounded and the quirks that make it different from English.
“The more I spoke it, the more I found myself learning about the Italian culture.
“I found myself being invited to dinner by Italians and having an opportunity to find out more about their culture and food.
“I was very excited to recently find out my great-great-grandfather was from Italy, but I’m trying to figure out whether he was from the north or the south.”
Across the council region, Mandarin and Filipino follow Italian as the most commonly spoken languages at home, trailed by Dutch and German.
Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, Polish, Filipino and German were recorded as the most common languages in Millicent after Italian.
Mandarin has overtaken Japanese as the most common language other than English in Beachport while Spanish and Bisaya are the most common spoken in Rendelsham.
Afrikaans is now the most commonly spoken language in Glencoe other than English, surpassing German as the most common response in 2011.
In Kalangadoo, Hungarian is the most common language other than English, Filipino is the top language other than English is Tantanoola, while Finnish, Japanese and Russian were the top responses for Nangwarry.
Other than English, no languages were recorded for Hatherleigh, Mount Burr and Furner.
