Abbreviated as CALD; referenced by 13 other explainers
Culturally and linguistically diverse, or CALD, is a broad label used in Australian policy and planning. It usually refers to people or households with different cultural, language, or migration backgrounds. This often includes overseas birth, or a language other than English spoken at home.
ABS does not publish a single CALD count, and Place Forecast does not publish one either. The label is built up from other Census topics:
These figures come from published small-area counts, not from records about each person.
Different groups define CALD in different ways. This means CALD figures from different sources may not always match.
CALD is a broad label. It can include many communities, languages, birthplaces, and migration histories. So it should not be read as one single group with the same needs. Where you can, it is better to name the group shown in the data. For example, this could be people born in Vietnam. It could be homes where Arabic is spoken. It could be people who arrived in Australia after 2016.
Place Forecast uses published Census counts. It does not use records about each person.
See the related Census explainers for more detail on country of birth, language used at home, year of arrival, and ancestry.