Where the Nepali community lives in Canberra

Phillip has the largest Nepali community: 6.3% of residents were born in Nepal and 5.9% speak Nepali at home. Lyons and Belconnen follow. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 30 eligible Canberra suburbs. In Canberra suburbs of 2,000+ residents, 1.3% of people were born in Nepal (2021 Census).

Suburbs are ordered by the share of residents who were born in Nepal. The census publishes no Nepali ancestry category, so country of birth is the primary signal. Only suburbs with at least 2,000 residents are included, and percentile ranks are computed within Canberra's pool, so the list reflects concentration relative to other metro suburbs.

They are different census angles on the Nepali community: country of birth counts only those who migrated and language at home counts the actively speaking core. They rarely match, and seeing them together tells you whether a suburb's community is long-established, newly-arrived, or somewhere in between.

They measure different things and come from different census questions. Ancestry is a multiple-response question (a person can report up to two), so it isn't a clean share of population; birthplace counts only people born overseas; and language counts only those who still speak it at home. This is descriptive demographic data, not a recommendation to seek out or avoid anywhere.

The figures are from the 2021 Census, the most recent available until results from the August 2026 Census are released in 2027. The top 15 is recomputed whenever we refresh the census data.