Diverse Communities
The City of Canada Bay is a culturally rich and diverse community with different groups of people residing, studying and working in its suburbs.
Our population springs from a wide variety of countries of origin, including Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Greece, and many more making it a harmonious and culturally diverse community to live in.
Our City has a high level of cultural and ethnic diversity with over 31 per cent of the population born overseas and over 24 per cent from non-English speaking backgrounds. The dominant non-English speaking country of birth in the City of Canada Bay is Italy, where 6.2 per cent of the population were born. However the most significant changes in the population have been from those born in China, the Republic of South Korea and India.
The City of Canada Bay has over 61 per cent of the population who speak English only, and over 31 per cent speak a non-English language. The dominant language spoken at home, other than English, in City of Canada Bay is Italian, with over 10.2 per cent of the population using this language.
The most significant changes in the spoken languages of the population in City of Canada Bay have been for those speaking Mandarin, Korean and Cantonese.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing, 2006, 2001, 1996, and 1991.
The City of Canada Bay has developed a Community Harmony Strategy to enhance and improve Council’s existing services and programs to the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) community. The Strategy identifies the way in which Council encourages participation in community activities by people from CALD backgrounds through the delivery of services and information in an accessible and culturally appropriate manner.
Council conducted community consultation to gather resident's experiences and suggestions about what Council could do to achieve and enhance service delivery within a diverse community. These suggestions were used to develop the Community Harmony Strategy, which was adopted by Council on 16 March 2010.
The City of Canada Bay and surrounding suburbs in the Inner West region have a range of services for newly arrived migrants.
For further information read our Multicultural Services Fact Sheet or contact Council's community project officer on 9911 6523.
In August 2014, City of Canada Bay joined the national campaign "Racism. It Stops with Me".
This campaign is a key initiative of the Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Strategy, which invites community groups, government bodies, corporations and voluntary groups to sign up to the campaign and pledge support to prevent and reduce racism through actions taken by individuals and groups.
City of Canada Bay is committed to preventing and reducing racism. Signing up to the campaign "Racism. It Stops With Me" was one vehicle for Council to address the difficult issue of bullying and discrimination by harnessing ways to discuss these issues openly.
The campaign aligns with Council’s Community Harmony Strategy and FuturesPlan20, which celebrates our established and emerging communities, as well supports a range of programs to encourage awareness of local Aboriginal culture.
Over 95 government and not-for-profit organisations across Australia have signed up to the campaign, in addition to over 125 tertiary education institutions, private businesses, legal and peak body organisations.
The campaign aims to create a culture where people are able to identify racism and have the confidence and tools to act appropriately when it does occur.
Campaign materials are being promoted at Council facilities throughout the local government area and via social media.
MyGov is undergoing changes and some new features that are available include the Help and support webpage and Languages webpages.
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