Table B9: Number of Victorian children from a non–English speaking background (NESB) enrolled in a Victorian government-funded kindergarten program, 2014 to 202424
| Year | NESB children enrolled in kindergarten |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 30,698 |
| 2023 | 29,941 |
| 2022 | 26,703 |
| 2021 | 16,305 |
| 2020 | 14,818 |
| 2019 | 16,303 |
| 2018 | 18,195 |
| 2017 | 16,741 |
| 2016 | 14,044 |
| 2015 | 11,657 |
| 2014 | 9,904 |
Table B10: Unemployment rate of Victorians born in non-main English-speaking countries compared with the unemployment rate of all Victorians, 2017–18 to 2024–2525
| Year | NMESC-born (%) | All Victorians (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | 4.9 | 4.5 |
| 2023–24 | 4.3 | 4.0 |
| 2022–23 | 4.0 | 3.7 |
| 2021–22 | 5.1 | 4.3 |
| 2020–21 | 7.7 | 6.2 |
| 2019–20 | 7.3 | 5.4 |
| 2018–19 | 6.0 | 4.7 |
| 2017–18 | 7.3 | 5.7 |
Table B11: Workforce participation rate of Victorians born in non-main English-speaking countries compared with the workforce participation rate of all Victorians, 2017–18 to 2024–2526
| Year | NMESC-born (%) | All Victorians (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | 66.7 | 67.9 |
| 2023–24 | 66.3 | 67.4 |
| 2022–23 | 64.3 | 66.9 |
| 2021–22 | 62.9 | 66.3 |
| 2020–21 | 60.6 | 65.3 |
| 2019–20 | 60.6 | 65.8 |
| 2018–19 | 58.9 | 65.8 |
| 2017–18 | 57.6 | 65.8 |
Footnote
24Source: Department of Education Kindergarten Census Collection. Data is collected annually. The large increase in 2022 is due to the statewide rollout of 3-year-old kindergarten. The data represents the number of children who were enrolled in a funded kindergarten program and whose family indicated that they speak a main language at home other than English. It is not feasible to calculate a kindergarten participation rate for NESB children because there is no suitable NESB population denominator for children eligible to enrol in 3-year-old or 4-year-old kindergarten. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 there was a system error in the Kindergarten Information Management System. This error removed the ability for service providers to select ‘other’ under the question for ‘Main language spoken at home (if not English)’. Kindergarten services that would have usually entered data in this field may have left this blank. (In 2018 almost 3,500 children had ‘other’ entered in this field.)
25Australian Bureau of Statistics (December 2024), ‘Table 2: Labour force status by State, Territory, Greater capital city, Rest of state (ASGS) and Sex, Australia’, accessed 17 February 2025, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed.
26Australian Bureau of Statistics (December 2024), ‘LM7: Labour force status by elapsed years since arrival, main English-speaking countries, sex, state and territory, January 1991 onwards’, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, accessed 17 February 2025, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed.
Updated