The line graph compares how many Australian individuals who spoke in four languages as their mother tongue, particularly in Chinese, Arabic, Italian as well as Greek during 25 years from 1986 to 2011.
Overall, it can be seen that more and more people in Australia used Chinese and Arabic as their first language, while the number of Italian and Greek speakers experienced a gradual reduction over the given period of time. However, Chinese speakers surpassed others by the end.
In 1986, just over 100,000 Australians could speak in Chinese, while the minority of them used Arabic language as their mother tongue, accounting for 50,000. Over the following five years, both Chinese and Arabic speakers demonstrated a moderate growth, making up just over 150,000 and approximately 75,000, respectively. After experiencing a gradual rise, the number of Australian people who were natives of Chinese language increased and finally reached its highest point at 350,000 in 2011. In contrast, the figure for Arabic speakers increased moderately and made up 200,000 fewer than Chinese people.
Turning to the other category of Australians who were fluent in Greek and Italian, in the beginning of period, the highest proportion of individuals who used Greek language stood at 250,000, whereas those who spoke fluently in Italian language were 50,000 fewer. Nevertheless, from 1986 to 2011 the number of both Greek and Italian native speakers showed a continuous decline and dropped to roughly 180,000 and 100,000, respectively.