The line graph shows the number of people in Australia who used different languages as their native language over a 37-year period, commencing from 1986.
In general, the number of people using Chinese rose consistently, so was true for those who used Arabic. Popularity of Italian and Greek declined, with the former seeing a plateau from 2006 to 2011. Chinese grew in popularity, recording an all-time high in the end. What stands out most is that the gap between Chinese and other language users widened considerably.
People in Australia showed a strong preference towards Chinese. Even though it ranked third at the outset (just over 100,000 users), the figure got a noticeable fillip, reaching its peak (350,000) in 2011. Arabic, however, was the least popular language among people in Australia in 1986, for there were only 50,000 users, a number that then grew by 100,000 until 2011 (150,000).
In stark contrast, despite being prevalent among people in 1986, Greek and Italian fell out of favor as time went by. Initial numbers of people who used these languages were 230,000 and 150,000, respectively, after which both abated by 2006, reaching just under 200,000 and just over 100,000, respectively. While the former continued to decline by 2011 (about 190,000), the latter remained unchanged thereafter.