Where the South African community lives in Melbourne

Caulfield South has the largest South African community: 5.7% of residents were born in South Africa and 4.8% reported South African ancestry. Caulfield and Sandhurst follow. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 156 eligible Melbourne suburbs. In Melbourne suburbs of 2,000+ residents, 0.6% of people were born in South Africa (2021 Census).

Suburbs are ordered by the share of residents who were born in South Africa. Measured on the metro pools, South Africa-born is both wider (729 suburbs against 589) and more concentrated (peaking at 14.3% against 12.7%) than South African ancestry, which many second-generation residents report as English instead. Only suburbs with at least 2,000 residents are included, and percentile ranks are computed within Melbourne's pool, so the list reflects concentration relative to other metro suburbs.

They are different census angles on the South African community: country of birth counts only those who migrated and ancestry is the broadest, since it includes people born here. 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.