The graph gives information about the number of people in Australia who used Chinese, Arabic, Italian

or Greek as their first language.

The graph illustrates how many people living in Australia speak Chinese, Arabic, Italian or Greek as their
first language from 1986 to 2011. Overall, there was an increase in the number of people in Australia
speaking these languages as their first language, with the figure for Chinese witnessing the most drastic
rise. In addition, from 1996 onwards, the number of people whose first language is Chinese surpassed
that of Greek, making Chinese the most prevalent language used among the four languages examined.

The number of people residing in Australia who speak Chinese as their first language started at north of
100000 in 1986, after which it experienced a progressive growth to around 200000 in 1996 before
ending the period at 350000. Similar changes can be seen in the figure for Arabic, but to a lesser extent,
which increased from 50000 in 1986 to 150000 in 2011.

Approximately 240000 Australian inhabitants said that they learned Greek as their first language in
1986, with a subsequent decrease to upward of 200000 in 1996 and a final drop to roughly 180000 in
2011. The figures for Italian saw a similar trend, which declined considerably from 150000 in 1986 to
about 100000 in 2011.