Even though Australia is becoming more linguistically diverse, the number of third and second generation Australians who speak more languages than English at home decreases.

The most recent census data shows a rapid decline in formerly popular languages such as Greek, Italian and Croatian from 2001 to 2016 as children of migrants speak primarily English.

The biggest drop is seen in the number of people who speak Italian at home, which has plunged from about 353,200 in 2001 to 271,600 in 2016.

Greek came quite close falling by 25,900 to 237,600 over the same period, with Croatian, plummeting from 12,900 to 56,900.

Italian was the most spoken language after English at home back in 2006 and Greek language followed suit, with Croatian, Polish and Maltese trying to keep up from a distance.

Within 15 years, Italian has dropped to fifth place, however, the Greek Community has managed to limit the decline due the plethora of Greek schools, ABC reports.

“Migration generally tends to come from areas where there’s been a war or there’s been economic hardship, [with] people seeking a better life,” demographer Glenn Capuano from .id said.

“And that happened very much with the Italian and Greek immigrants [in the] 1940s and 1950s … then we had the Vietnam migrants for similar reasons in the 1970s, and then more recently there’s been more in the skilled migration area, and that’s been predominantly Asian, Chinese and Indian.”

While between 1940-1970 it was mainly citizens from European countries that migrated to Australia, in recent years it is mainly Asia that supplies the Lucky Country with permanent residents, the latest available figures from the Department of Home Affairs show.

Understandably, Asian languages have become more popular with Mandarin being the most widely spoken besides English, followed by Arabic and Cantonese.

Meanwhile, skilled new migrants from Asia are coming from big cities, already trained and educated internationally unlike the Greeks and Italians escaping post-war poverty back on the day, experts say.

Across Australia, there are also emerging languages like Nepali, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Gujarati are also growing in popularity.

The effort made by Greek schools to preserve the Hellenic culture and language, even though a decline in popularity has been inevitable proves that if there is a will there is a way.

Lastly, multicultural events and close relations with family can help younger generations remain connected with their linguistically and culturally diverse identity.