The Illawarra is the most ethnically diverse area in regional NSW, according to newly compiled data.
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It is also home to the most significant Islamic community outside of the major centres, and has the smallest proportion of indigenous residents of the regions, with only 2.3 per cent Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.
The data has been produced by the NSW Parliamentary Research Service, in a new document based on responses to the 2011 Census, which divided NSW into 28 areas.
According to the research, more than 20 per cent of people in the Illawarra were born overseas, the highest rate in any of the regions (Far West and Orana had the lowest rate, 5.2 per cent).
The Illawarra tops the list for people born in Southern Europe (2.2 per cent), South Eastern Europe (3 per cent), the Middle East (0.8 per cent), South East Asia (1.3 per cent), North East Asia (1.3 per cent) and non-English-speaking countries (17.1 per cent).
The Illawarra has the highest proportion of people with one (42 per cent) or both parents (28.5 per cent) born overseas, and the greatest rate of non-English speaking in the home (18.1 per cent).
The Islamic population remains smaller than is average state-wide (3.2 per cent) but is the biggest in regional Australia (1.7 per cent).
Berkeley's Abdurrahman Ceylan, public officer of the Islamic Society of NSW, believes the Illawarra's multiculturalism is rooted in the labour migration of the 1960s and 1970s.
He attributes more recent increases - the Islamic population grew from 3309 to 4605 from 2001-2011 - to people starting families.
"Families are growing, people are having kids. Take my family - we're into the third generation now," he said.
"There would be other things, such as people coming to Australia for the first time - Australia's always looking for professional migration - and I think there would be people accepting the Islamic faith who weren't part of that tradition in the 2001 Census."
Mr Ceylan said he hoped planning officials would look to the results to factor in the future needs specific to the Islamic and other communities.
An example was cemetery space. Cremation is against the Islamic tradition; all dead are buried.
"In Sydney they're having major problems in finding room [for Muslim burials]," Mr Ceylan said.
"This may happen to us [in the Illawarra] unless we plan ahead."