Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)
CALD stands for culturally and linguistically diverse, an Australian term for people born overseas (in some definitions, only in countries other than the main English-speaking ones), people who use a language other than English, or both. It has no official definition, so a CALD figure depends on which ABS variables it uses, such as country of birth, language used at home or English proficiency.
Status of the term
CALD is used in Australian reporting by agencies including the AIHW and Queensland Health, though the ABS doesn't define it. The ABS's Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Language Diversity, endorsed in 1999 and republished unchanged in February 2022, recommend that the older label NESB (non-English-speaking background) be discontinued for data and that no other single measure take its place.
How CALD is measured
The AIHW notes there is no single way to define a CALD background, which can mean people born overseas, people whose preferred or home language isn't English, people with limited English, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, or a combination of these. A CALD figure is built from one or more of the ABS's standard variables, such as country of birth, language used at home and proficiency in spoken English, and the choice changes the count considerably: applying different definitions to the 2021 Census put between 6.3% and 43% of Australian children aged 0 to 17 in a CALD group, according to Abdul Rahim and colleagues (2024).
CALD and Censible
Censible doesn't publish a single CALD figure. It has the Census variables a CALD figure is built from, including language used at home, English proficiency, country of birth, parents' country of birth and year of arrival, for suburbs, councils, postcodes and catchments drawn around a site. The guide What CALD means, and how to measure it with Census data works through the ABS variables and how to choose among them.
Sources: ABS, Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Language Diversity; AIHW, Culturally and linguistically diverse older people; Abdul Rahim and colleagues, Counting CALD children in Australian health research (2024).
Local Government Area (LGA)
LGA stands for Local Government Area: the area a local council looks after. In ABS data, LGAs are the ABS's version of council boundaries, built from small mesh blocks so Census figures can be published for every council in Australia.
Suburbs and Localities (SAL)
The ABS's approximation of officially recognised suburbs and localities, built from mesh blocks. It replaced State Suburbs (SSC) from the 2021 Census.
Catchment (trade area)
The area a store, clinic, school or other site draws its customers, patients or users from. A catchment can be drawn as a ring around the site, a drive or walk time, a hand-drawn boundary, or from where existing customers live.
Questions people ask
Culturally and linguistically diverse. It's used in Australian reporting for people born overseas, people who use a language other than English, or both, and the exact definition varies between organisations.
No. Someone born in England or New Zealand is born overseas but may not count as CALD under a language-based definition, while someone born in Australia who uses Vietnamese or Arabic at home would. The AIHW's aged care reporting, for example, counts people born in countries other than the main English-speaking ones.
It depends on the definition. The AIHW lists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people among the groups CALD can refer to, though its own CALD figures use country of birth and English proficiency, so check which definition a figure uses.
It depends on the definition. At the 2021 Census, 29.3% of people who stated a birthplace were born overseas, 23.6% of people who stated a language used one other than English at home, and 3.6% of people who answered spoke English not well or not at all.
NESB (non-English-speaking background) is an older label that the ABS recommended in 1999 be discontinued for data, and its standards set out variables to use in its place.