ABS Census 2021 data for the Preston SA2 region records at least 64 distinct languages used at home, with Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Macedonian as the largest non-English language groups. The unofficial 2026 read is higher — likely 75+ languages — once you include the more recent African and South Asian arrivals not yet captured in the 2021 count.
I write the over-50s beat for MELBZ. I’m in Sandringham now, but my parents’ generation settled in Preston and Coburg in the 1960s and the suburb’s linguistic layers are personal history for me. Most of the older Italian and Greek migrant streets are within a 4km radius of where I grew up. The 2026 Preston is more linguistically diverse than the 1980s Preston, and the 1980s Preston was already remarkable.
What the Census actually counts
ABS ‘Language Used at Home’ is a self-reported count from the five-yearly Census. It captures the language spoken at home rather than fluency, formal education, or workplace use. The 2021 Census for the Preston SA2 region (which roughly aligns with the suburb boundaries) records at least 64 distinct languages with reported speakers.
The headline numbers from the 2021 count:
- English is the most-reported language at home — but at a lower share than the Greater Melbourne average. Preston is among the more linguistically diverse SA2 regions in the inner-north.
- Italian is the single largest non-English language at home, reflecting the post-war Italian migrant settlement.
- Greek is second, also a 1950s-70s migrant heritage.
- Mandarin Chinese is third and rising fast — reflecting both recent migration and the broader Melbourne pattern.
- Vietnamese is close behind, reflecting the long-running post-1975 Vietnamese community.
- Arabic is in the top 6, with the largest sub-groups being Lebanese and Iraqi heritage.
- Macedonian rounds out the top 7, with strong concentration in some streets near Plenty Rd.
The next Census is 2026, with data release expected in 2027. The Darebin City Council community profile 2024 update — a more frequent administrative dataset — suggests the language count is now 75+ once you include the more recent Horn-of-Africa, South Asian, and African arrivals.
The historical layers
Preston’s linguistic mix is essentially layered history. Three major migration waves established the suburb’s current character:
The post-war Italian and Greek wave (1948-1975). Italian and Greek migrants settled the inner-north heavily through the 1950s and 1960s, drawn by manufacturing employment, affordable housing, and the existence of established migrant communities. Streets in Preston still have intergenerational Italian and Greek family residence — three or four generations on the same block, sometimes the same house. The Italian and Greek small-business layer (bakeries, delis, butchers, tailors, espresso bars) anchored the Edwardes St strip from the 1960s onward.
The post-1975 Vietnamese and South-East Asian wave. Vietnamese refugees settled in the inner-north and inner-west through the late 1970s and 1980s. Preston’s Vietnamese community established the High St / Plenty Rd corner as a small Vietnamese commercial cluster — pho restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, and family-run businesses that have continued through to 2026. Cambodian and Laotian families arrived in smaller numbers through the same period.
The 1990s-2010s Middle Eastern and African wave. Lebanese, Iraqi, and later Syrian arrivals through the 1990s and 2000s established the Arabic-speaking community. Horn-of-Africa migrants (Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali) settled in increasing numbers from the 2000s onward, with strong community structures around specific religious institutions and family networks.
The 2010s-2020s Chinese and South Asian wave. Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking migrants from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan settled in significant numbers through the 2010s. Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu-speaking arrivals from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have grown rapidly through the late 2010s and 2020s.
Each wave didn’t replace the previous. They layered.
Where you can hear different languages
Preston Market on a Saturday morning is the densest single venue. Walk through the produce hall and you’ll hear Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Arabic in adjacent stalls. The food court has Lebanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, and increasingly Eritrean and Indian operators. The market has been the suburb’s multilingual anchor since the 1970s.
Edwardes St runs Italian and Greek strongly. The bakeries, the espresso bars, the older delis. Walk the strip on a weekday morning and you’ll catch the older generation of Italian and Greek speakers on the footpath outside the cafes. Sundays after church are particularly multilingual.
Plenty Rd and the High St strip carry the more recent migrant-language layer. Mandarin signage outside grocery stores. Hindi and Punjabi conversations in the Indian restaurants. Vietnamese in the long-running pho and banh mi shops. Arabic in the Middle Eastern groceries.
Religious institutions anchor several of the language communities:
- The Italian Catholic parish holds masses partly in Italian for the older congregation.
- The Greek Orthodox church runs services in Greek, with Easter and Christmas being particularly substantial community events.
- The mosques serve Arabic-speaking and broader Muslim communities, with Friday prayers being notable gathering points.
- The Buddhist temples serve Vietnamese, Cambodian, and broader South-East Asian communities.
- The Hindu temples in the broader Preston-Reservoir area serve the growing South Asian community.
Schools and community language schools run Saturday morning classes for school-age children in Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, and several other languages. These have been a multi-decade feature of the suburb’s community infrastructure.
What the 2026 unofficial count looks like
The Darebin City Council community profile 2024 update suggests at least 75 distinct languages now spoken at home in Preston, up from the 64 captured in 2021. The growth has come from:
- Horn-of-Africa languages — Tigrinya, Amharic, Somali, Oromo. Small-but-growing communities established in the 2010s, more visible in 2024-2026.
- South Asian languages — Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Sinhala. Significant growth across the late 2010s and 2020s.
- African languages beyond the Horn — Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Akan. Smaller numbers but increasing.
- Filipino languages — Tagalog and Cebuano have been present for some time, with growing numbers in the 2020s.
- South American languages — Spanish (multiple variants) and Portuguese. Smaller communities but established.
The 2026 Census will provide the formal count. Until then, the unofficial 75+ figure is the working number per council data and on-the-ground observation.
What the linguistic diversity means in practice
For new arrivals, three practical implications:
Most everyday services have multilingual support somewhere in the suburb. GPs that speak Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Arabic are findable in the Edwardes St and High St clinics. Pharmacies likewise. Banks have multilingual staff in the Preston branches. Translators are available through the council and through community organisations.
The food culture is dense and authentic. A Saturday food walk through Preston gives you pho, Lebanese mezze, Italian pasta, Greek souvlaki, Vietnamese banh mi, Indian curry, Eritrean injera, Chinese dumplings, and increasingly West African and South American options — all within a 2km radius and at price points that haven’t yet inflated to inner-Melbourne levels.
The community structures are real. Religious institutions, community language schools, sporting clubs, social clubs (Italian, Greek, and Vietnamese in particular), and family-network businesses all support the linguistic communities. New arrivals to the relevant communities slot into existing infrastructure rather than building from scratch.
A long-time Preston resident I spoke to in April 2026 — third-generation Italian-Australian — captured the local view: “My grandfather spoke Italian on this street. My grandkids speak Mandarin on this street. The street is still the same street. The languages keep adding.” That’s the working pattern.
The decline that’s also real
Honesty requires acknowledging the languages that are receding. Italian and Greek speaker numbers are gradually declining as the post-war migrant generation ages and younger generations shift to English-dominant household use. The 2021 Census showed both languages still substantial but with a slight downward trend from 2016.
The receding pattern doesn’t mean the communities are disappearing. The Italian and Greek communities remain culturally and economically active in Preston. But the language-at-home metric is shifting as the third and fourth generations grow up English-dominant. The cultural identity and the language are decoupling somewhat — younger Italian-Australian and Greek-Australian residents may identify strongly with the heritage without speaking the language at home.
The community language schools partly compensate by maintaining a younger generation’s working competence even when the home language has shifted to English. The schools serve a different function in 2026 than they did in 1985 — heritage maintenance rather than primary-language reinforcement.
What this says about Preston’s future
Three forecasts based on the 2016-2024 trajectory:
- Total language count will continue rising — likely 80+ by the 2031 Census, driven by ongoing African, South Asian, and Latin American migration.
- Italian and Greek at-home use will continue declining gradually but the cultural infrastructure will remain. The shift is slower than people expect.
- Mandarin, Hindi, and the African languages will rise — the migration patterns of the 2020s are shifting the linguistic centre of gravity.
The structural feature of Preston is that the suburb absorbs new linguistic communities without displacing the existing ones. The Italian and Greek communities of 2026 still anchor Edwardes St; the Vietnamese community still anchors the High St / Plenty Rd corner; the Mandarin and South Asian communities are establishing their own commercial layers without displacing the older ones.
For broader Preston context — the food culture, the schools, the property and rental market, the rhythms that anchor most weekly errands — the things-to-do guide, the family pillar, and our Preston JP guide cover the community-services side that supports the linguistic mix.
What to do with this information
If you’ve just moved to Preston and you speak a language other than English at home:
- Find your language community. Religious institution, community language school, social club, or family network. The infrastructure exists for most major language groups.
- Use the multilingual services where they help. Multilingual GPs, pharmacists, council customer-service staff, and community legal services exist and are free or low-cost.
- Don’t assume English-dominance is required. Preston is one of the suburbs in Melbourne where you can live a substantial portion of your daily life in your home language if you want to.
If you’ve moved to Preston and you speak only English, the practical implications are different:
- Engage with the linguistic diversity rather than ignoring it. Eat at the family-run restaurants. Shop at the multilingual market. Walk the strips on a Saturday morning. The diversity is part of the suburb’s appeal.
- Don’t expect signage or service to be exclusively in English. Multilingual signage in Preston is normal and helpful. Treat it as a feature, not a barrier.
- Learn a few words of the local languages if you stay long-term. Greetings in Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic. The gesture matters.
The verdict
Preston in 2026 has 64+ languages confirmed by the 2021 Census and likely 75+ by current administrative count. The mix layers post-war Italian and Greek migration, post-1975 Vietnamese settlement, 1990s-2010s Middle Eastern arrivals, and 2010s-2020s Chinese, South Asian, and African communities.
Visit Preston Market on a Saturday morning if: you want the densest single multilingual experience in the suburb. The food court and produce hall together carry most of the suburb’s language layers.
Walk Edwardes St if: you want to hear the heritage Italian and Greek layer. Sunday after-church is particularly active.
Walk Plenty Rd and the High St strip if: you want the recent migration layer — Mandarin, Hindi, Vietnamese, Arabic.
Engage with the community structures if: you’re settling here long-term. Religious institutions, language schools, social clubs, and family-network businesses all welcome new participants.
The diversity is the suburb’s defining feature. The 64+ languages are not an abstraction — they’re the daily fabric of how Preston works. Methodology and how we cross-check ABS Census against Darebin Council community profile data are on our methodology page.
Last verified: 4 May 2026. Sources: ABS Census 2021 Language Used at Home tables for Preston SA2; Darebin City Council community profile 2024 update; persona walk-through Preston Market, Edwardes St, High St, Plenty Rd April 2026; long-term Preston resident conversations March-April 2026.