Introduction

Australia has a large culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) population. As of June 2021, 28% of Australia’s population were born overseas and this has been increasing over time (ABS 2022a). In 2021, there were over 400 separately identified languages spoken in Australian homes and 23% of Australians spoke a language other than English (ABS 2022b). Alcohol and other drug use is generally lower among people from CALD backgrounds than other Australians. However, some people from CALD backgrounds may experience alcohol and other drug-related harms due to a range of factors including lower health literacy, family stressors, unemployment, language barriers, and lack of culturally appropriate services available (Department of Health 2017).

This page focuses on alcohol and other drug use, harms and treatment among people from CALD backgrounds in Australia. The reporting uses data from national administrative and survey data.

Key findings

What data sources are available?

There is a lack of publicly available and comprehensive data examining the use of alcohol and other drugs by people from CALD backgrounds. The National Drug Strategy Household Survey is one of the only national data sources that specifically disaggregates alcohol and other drug use by main language spoken at home. The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set also collects CALD data.

For detailed information about each data source, see Technical notes.

What do we know about alcohol and other drug use among culturally and linguistically diverse Australians?

Tobacco smoking

  • People who mainly speak a language other than English at home are more likely than primary English speakers to have never smoked

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

  • Over 4 in 5 people who mainly spoke a language other than English at home in 2022–2023 had never smoked

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

While there has been an increase between 2019 and 2022–2023 in the proportion of people across Australia reporting never smoking, the proportion of people who have never smoked is greater for people who mainly speak a language other than English at home (82%) compared with people who mainly speak English at home (63%) (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9). This has been the case since 2010. People who mainly speak a language other than English at home also continue to be less likely to smoke daily than people who mainly speak English, though this varies and gender (AIHW 2024, Greenhalgh and Scollo 2025).

Data from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) indicate that there was a significant reduction in daily smoking among primary English speakers from 11.6% in 2019 to 8.5% in 2022–2023. For people who primarily speak another language, this figure fell from 5.3% in 2019 to 4.6% in 2022–2023 (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9; Figure 1). 


Figure 1: Tobacco smoking status, by main language spoken at home, people aged 14 and over, 2010 to 2022–2023

This figure shows that daily smoking has declined since 2010 among both people who mainly speak English and who mainly speak another language at home.

This figure shows that daily smoking has declined since 2010 among both people who mainly speak English and who mainly speak another language at home.

People who mainly speak a language other than English at home and do smoke tend to smoke fewer cigarettes than primary English speakers. In 2022–2023, among people who currently smoke, people who mainly spoke a language other than English smoked an average of 71 cigarettes per week, compared with 89 cigarettes for people who mainly spoke English (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9).

Vaping and e-cigarette use

  • Over half of people who mainly spoke a language other than English did not currently drink alcohol in 2022–2023, a higher proportion than for primary English speakers

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

In 2022–2023, 4.7% of people who mainly speak a language other than English at home reported currently using e-cigarettes and vapes, up from 1.2% in 2019. In comparison, 7.1% of people who mainly speak English at home reported currently using e-cigarettes and vapes in 2022–2023, up from 2.7% in 2019 (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9).

Alcohol use

  • Over half of people who mainly spoke a language other than English did not currently drink alcohol in 2022–2023, a higher proportion than for primary English speakers

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

Similar to smoking, data from the NDSHS show that people who mainly speak a language other than English at home are more likely to abstain from alcohol than people who mostly speak English (AIHW 2024).  Over half (51%) of people who mainly spoke a language other than English were abstainers or ex-drinkers, compared with 19.1% of primary English speakers (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9). Additionally, in 2022–2023:

  • Less than 1 in 10 (8.5%) people who mainly spoke a language other than English at home reported drinking more than 10 standard drinks of alcohol per week, compared with 27% for people who mainly spoke English at home (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9).
  • People who mainly spoke a language other than English (11.8%) were much less likely to exceed risk guidelines for alcohol, compared with people who mainly spoke English at home (33%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Alcohol drinking status, by main language spoken at home, people aged 14 and over, 2010 to 2022–2023

This figure shows that, of people who mainly speak a language other than English at home, the proportion who drank at risky levels has remained stable.

This figure shows that, of people who mainly speak a language other than English at home, the proportion who drank at risky levels has remained stable.

Illicit drug use

  • English 18.8 Other language 8.5

    %

    People who mostly speak a language other than English are less likely to use illicit drugs than primary English speakers

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

  • Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug among people who mainly speak a language other than English at home

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

Illicit drug use continues to be less common among people who mainly speak a language other than English at home than those from English speaking backgrounds (AIHW 2024). In 2022–2023, people who mainly speak a language other than English at home were less likely to have recently used illicit drugs (8.5%) than those who mainly speak English at home (18.8%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Recentᵃ illicit drug use, by main language spoken at home, people aged 14 and over, 2010 to 2022–2023

This figure shows that among people who mainly spoke a language other than English at home, illicit drug use has remained relatively stable since 2010.

This figure shows that among people who mainly spoke a language other than English at home, illicit drug use has remained relatively stable since 2010.

The 2022–2023 NDSHS showed that:

  • Cannabis (4.8%) was the most commonly used illicit drug among people who mainly spoke a language other than English at home, followed by non-medical use of pharmaceuticals (2.8%). These proportions were much lower than for people who mainly spoke English at home (12.3% for cannabis and 5.4% for pharmaceuticals). 
  • Use of other drugs was uncommon among people who mainly speak a language other than English at home (AIHW 2024, Table 10.9; Figure 3).

For related content on alcohol and other drug use in this report, see Drug types.

What do we know about health and harms for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians who use alcohol and other drugs?

There is a lack of data available on alcohol and other drug-related health and harms among people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia. 

Detailed information about alcohol and other drug-related health and harms among the general population is presented in Health and harms.

How many culturally and linguistically diverse Australians receive treatment for alcohol and other drug use?

Data from Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia show that over 1 in 10 clients (12%) who received treatment for their own or someone else’s alcohol or other drug use in 2023–24 were born outside of Australia (excluding people with country of birth ‘Not stated’) (AIHW 2025, Table SC.28). The United Kingdom (2.3%) and New Zealand (2.2%) were the most common countries of birth outside of Australia, followed by India, South Africa, Sudan and Vietnam, which each accounted for less than 1% of clients (AIHW 2025). Comparatively, in 2021, 4.5% of the Australian population was born in the United Kingdom, 2.6% in India and 2.1% in New Zealand (ABS 2022b). 

For related content on treatment for alcohol and other drug use in this report, see Treatment.

Where do I go for more information?