For generations Melbourne's suburbs have been shaped by cultures and people from all around the world.

The Italians went to Carlton, the Greeks found Richmond and the Vietnamese made Footscray home.

This latest snapshot gives us a unique view on how our city's character is influenced by new people arriving on our shores.

This map shows the most common country of birth after Australia for every suburb in the Melbourne region.

If you click or touch an area on the map, it will show the five most common countries of birth for people in that suburb. Small suburbs - areas with fewer than 1000 residents on census night - have been omitted.

As you can see, people from China are concentrated in the inner city and eastern suburbs, a large number of people from India have settled in outer-suburban growth areas, and English expats have flocked to the picturesque beachside locales.

The map was made using data from the 2016 census, which showed that Melburnians come from almost every country in the world (aside from the Vatican, some tiny islands in the Caribbean and Niger, in Africa).

In Roxburgh Park, in Melbourne's north, 18 per cent of its population were born in Iraq. Shireen Francis is one of them, and she has been living in the suburb since 2003, having arrived in Australia shortly after the Iraq War broke out.

Shireen Francis says she has a good quality of life in Roxburgh Park. Photo: Chris Hopkins

"I left (Iraq) because we lived in a war zone for years - I grew up with war," she said.

"We were all looking for a peaceful place to live because we didn't enjoy peace in our lives for years.

"For 20 years we didn't enjoy one day of peace."

Ms Francis said she chose to settle in Roxburgh Park because one of her brothers lived nearby, and has grown to like the area.

"The area is nice, with a lot of amenities - shops, train stations, a church," she said.

Access to public transport also made it easy for newly arrived migrants to find their feet, she said.

Bao Phan lives about 25 kilometres away in Sunshine North, where almost 30 per cent of residents are from Vietnam.

Mr Phan, who owns three takeaway food stores in the Sunshine area, fled South Vietnam aged 16. He was settled in Hobart, but moved to Sunshine North in 2005 because of its affordability.

"Most of my life I have spent in Australia," he said. "I think Melbourne has been the number one city to live ... and I think Sunshine is a great suburb for Vietnamese people."

He said the region boasted some good schools, and the fact the teachers were Vietnamese made it easier for new migrants from his birthplace to adjust to life in Australia.

Bao Phan at one of his takeaway food stores in Sunshine West. Photo: Simon Schluter

Let's take a closer look at the map

The large blue zone in the eastern suburbs are areas where China is the most common country of birth after Australia. In Box Hill, near the centre of that blue zone, almost 30 per cent of the population was born in China.

The suburbs of Melbourne (in blue) where China is the second most common country of birth.

The large green areas in Melbourne's northeast and snaking down the eastern coast of Port Phillip Bay are places where people from England have settled. However, these are areas are largely home to British expats who moved to Australia a long time ago, and they don't tend to constitute more than 5 per cent of the population in these places.

The English expat hotspot of Melbourne is Mt Eliza, on the Mornington Peninsula, where one in 10 residents was born in England.

North of the city, there are some pockets where Italy or Greece are the most likely birthplace after Australia. But only a handful of these areas remain, as older post-war migrants move or pass away, outnumbered by their Australian-born children and more recent migrants.

Census data certainly shows that the number of Italian-born people in Carlton, which is considered the centre of Italian culture in Melbourne, has dwindled. There are now more people from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, New Zealand, England, Hong Kong, Singapore or South Korea living there than people from Italy.

But there is still a swathe of suburbs in the city's north where Italy is the most common country of birth after Australia, and in Keilor Park, Avondale Heights and Fawkner, more than 10 per cent of the population were born in Italy.

The suburbs with the highest proportion of people born in Greece or Italy.

What the map data tells us

But keep in mind that the colours on the map only show the most common country of birth after Australia, and do not say anything about the proportion of the area's population from that country.

For example, both Box Hill and Rowville show up as blue on the map, but in Box Hill 30 per cent of the population were born in China, while in Rowville 4 per cent of the population were born in China.

Also, while the most common country of birth after Australia for Spotswood residents is New Zealand, that doesn't mean the area has the highest concentration of Kiwis in the state. While 3 per cent of Spotswood hails from across the Tasman Sea, a higher proportion of Tarneit's residents (5 per cent) are New Zealanders. However, Tarneit shows up as pink on the map because 20 per cent of its residents were born in India.

Finally, we have chosen to display the second most common country of birth because the map of the most common country of birth is not very interesting.

Here's what that map looks like:

Australia is the most common country of birth for all but two Melbourne suburbs.

Those two red spots on the map are the CBD and Clayton, incredibly diverse suburbs that are home to a large number of international students.

China is the most common country of birth in these two areas, making up 24 per cent of the CBD's population and 27 per cent of Clayton's.

But Box Hill still has the highest proportion of Chinese-born residents, with 29 per cent of its population born in China.

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