THERE are at least 85 different languages spoken in homes across Croydon.
Despite what people of a certain political persuasion might think, English remains by far the borough's most spoken main language, with 296,232 (85.5 per cent) speakers.
50,219 people listed a language other than English as what they speak at home, some 14.5 per cent of the borough's overall population.
The figures are taken from the 2011 Census, when Croydon's population was recorded as 346,451.
Other than English, the most commonly spoken main language is Tamil (5,172), Polish (4,940), Gujarati (4,214), Urdu (3,906) and French (2,408).
Less commonly spoken primary languages include Romani (7), Caribbean Creole (4), Pakistani Pahari (8), Hebrew (10) and Slovenian (10).
No one in Croydon said they spoke Yiddish as a main language.
The figure for the total number of different languages spoken in Croydon is likely to be higher than 85 as the Census groups some dialects together.
The borough's population has also increased significantly since the Cenus was compiled.
In November 2012 the Advertiser produced a feature about Oasis Academy Shirley Park, a secondary school where pupils speak 69 different languages.
