The given graph illustrates the number of Australians whose mother tongue is Chinese, Arabic, Italian and Greek.
Overall, the number of Australian inhabitants of Chinese and Arabic birth experienced an upward trend in contrast to a decline in the other two brackets. In addition, Chinese surpassed other languages and became the most popular first language in Australia.
Regarding the upward trends, the number of people using Chinese as their initial language witnessed a slight increase from 100,000 in the first year to roughly 160,000 in 1991, and then it continued to rise dramatically to reach a peak of 350,000 at the end of the period. Similarly, after climbing significantly from 50,000 in 1986 to nearly 140,000 by 2006, the number of residents whose mother tongue is Arabic grew slightly to 150,000 in 2011.
Concerning the downward trends, there was a steady fall in the number of inhabitants who use Greek as their native language from nearly 230,000 in 1986 to about 155,000 in the year 2011. Moreover, the number of citizens using Italian as their first language decreased considerably by 50,000 from 150,000 in the first twenty years, which was followed by no change to end the period.
