Japanese has topped the list of the most popular languages studied by students in their early years of high school, according to data released by the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. More than 25,000 NSW students in years 7, 8 and 9 undertook Japanese language studies in 2017.
The top 10 languages studied in 2017 were:
- Japanese (25,472)
- French (16,267)
- Italian (5,473)
- Chinese (Mandarin) (5,176)
- Indonesian (3,603)
- German (3,438)
- Spanish (2,950)
- Korean (875)
- Latin (825)
- Arabic (771)
This ranking has remained largely unchanged in the years from 2012 to 2017.
The data also shows that there has been a significant increase in the participation in Aboriginal language studies for this cohort of students. In fact, between 2012 and 2017 participation in Aboriginal language studies increased by 135%. This correlates with the introduction of actions under the NSW Government's 2012 OCHRE initiative to revitalise Aboriginal languages.
To explore NSW Government open data about many topics, including language participation by NSW students, visit Data.NSW.