In a progress report published by the Australian Productivity Commission, tasked with assessing the progress of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, only four of a total of 19 socio-economic targets aimed at improving outcomes for Australia's First Nations people were considered on track as of June 2023. The remaining targets were either improving but not on track, had no data available to be assessed, or in some cases, were worsening.

Progress towards gender parity is proceeding at different speeds across geographic areas. As of 2024, Europe and North America had the smallest gender gap at 75 percent, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, which has closed 74 percent of its gap. At the current rate, it is estimated that gender parity will be achieved in Europe in 67 years. The Global Gender Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education, and health-based criteria. In 2024, the leading country was Iceland with a score of 0.94.

Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Close the Gap Foundation

According to a survey conducted in Australia in 2022, less than one-fifth of First Nations respondents considered that governments are doing as much as they can to help close the gap in education outcomes between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians.

This dataset presents a range of data items sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The data is derived from the November 2024 release of Data by region. Individual data items present the latest reference year data available on Data by region. This layer presents data by Local Government Areas (LGA), 2021.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples theme is based on groupings of data within Data by region. Concepts, sources and methods for each dataset can be found on the Data by region methodology page.

Topics in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples theme include:

Estimated resident population Language (Census) Engagement in employment, education or training (Census) Labour force status (Census) Unpaid assistance to person with disability (Census) Unpaid childcare (Census) Voluntary work (Census) Tenure type (Census)

The Closing the Gap topics that are informed by Census data are included in the update:

Target 5: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20-24 years attaining Year 12 or an equivalent qualification to 96 per cent. Target 6: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate III and above) to 70 per cent. Target 7: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth aged 15-24 years who are in employment, education or training to 67 per cent. Target 8: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-64 years who are employed to 62 per cent. Target 9A: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized (not overcrowded) housing to 88 per cent.

When analysing these statistics:

Time periods, definitions, methodologies, scope, and coverage can differ across collections.
Some data values have been randomly adjusted or suppressed to avoid the release of confidential data, this means

    some small cells have been randomly set to zero
    care should be taken when interpreting cells with small numbers or zeros.

Data and geography references

Source data publication: Data by region Geographic boundary information: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 Further information: Data by region methodology, reference period 2011-24 Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Made possible by the Digital Atlas of Australia

The Digital Atlas of Australia is a key Australian Government initiative being led by Geoscience Australia, highlighted in the Data and Digital Government Strategy. It brings together trusted datasets from across government in an interactive, secure, and easy-to-use geospatial platform. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is working in partnership with Geoscience Australia to establish a set of web services to make ABS data available in the Digital Atlas of Australia.

Contact the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Email geography@abs.gov.au if you have any questions or feedback about this web service.
Subscribe to get updates on ABS web services and geospatial products.

Privacy at the Australian Bureau of Statistics Read how the ABS manages personal information - ABS privacy policy.

There are significant gender gaps across economic participation, educational attainment, health, survival, and political empowerment dimensions worldwide. According to the Global Gender Index, the global gender gap considering educational attainment as well as health and survival were almost closed as of 2024. By contrast, differences among men and women remained significantly larger on political empowerment, where only 22.5 percent of the gap was closed.

According to a survey conducted in Australia in 2022, approximately one quarter of respondents considered that governments are doing as much as they can to help close the gap in education outcomes between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians.

Another generation of women will have to wait for gender parity, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt, closing the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years.

Dataset provides the population of Local Government Area's as recorded for the 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 Census years for the measure of highest school year completed against the indigenous status provided. Australian Bureau of Statistics extracts from ABS Tablebuilder are used for the construction of the dataset. Data is used in calcuation of Closing the Gap targets in educational attainment.

In 2020 the child mortality rate of indigenous peoples in Australia under the age of five was 147.5 deaths per 100,000. By comparison, the non-Indigenous child mortality rate was less than half that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the country. In 2008 the Australian government made a commitment to achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the Closing the Gap framework. One of the commitments made by this framework was to halve the Indigenous child mortality rate in the country over a decade from 2008. Although some progress was made, this target was not achieved.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos on predictions for global issues in 2020, 54 percent of Australians believed it was unlikely that women would be paid the same amount as men for the same work in 2020. Australian respondents held an overall pessimistic view on closing the gender pay gap in 2020.

Progress towards gender parity is proceeding at different speeds across geographic areas. As of 2023, it was estimated that gender parity would be achieved in Latin America and the Caribbean in 53 years. In East Asia and the Pacific, however, gender parity was not forecast to be reached for another 190 years. At the moment, North America has the smallest gender gap worldwide. The Global Gender Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education, and health-based criteria. In 2022, the leading country was Iceland .

In 2019, 65.9 percent of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 20 to 24 years had attained a year 12 equivalent level of education. Of this group, Indigenous Australians in the ACT and Victoria were leading the other states and territories. Although year 12 equivalent attainment and enrollment rates for Indigenous Australians have been increasing in recent years, they still fall behind that of the non-Indigenous population. Closing the gap on EducationIn an effort to close the gap in disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the federal, state and territory Governments created the Closing the Gap Framework in 2008. The Framework identified seven target areas for improvement, which were early childhood, schooling, health, economic participation, healthy homes, safe communities, and governance and leadership. Only early childhood and schooling were considered to be on target in 2020. Child care enrollment rates were steadily increasing and more Indigenous Australian’s were attaining a bachelor degree. However, the states and territories with the highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations seemed more likely to lag behind. EmploymentAnother target of the Closing the Gap Framework, which is closely interlinked with education, is the economic participation target. In a 2015 survey, almost a third of Aboriginal jobseekers indicated that their level of education or training was an impediment to finding work. According to the Framework, the Australian federal, state and territory governments are working toward 60 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25 to 64 to be employed by 2028. However, in 2019 the target was reported to be not on track, with over 50 percent of Aboriginal people unemployed or out of the labor force.

New York City high school progress reporting on student progress, performance, school environment, college and career readiness and closing the achievement gap for fiscal year 2011 - 2012.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos on predictions for global issues in 2020, 62 percent of the respondents from Hong Kong believed that it was likely that women would be paid the same amount as men for the same work in 2020. Hong Kong was one of the most optimistic among all the countries surveyed about closing the gender pay gap in 2020.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos on predictions for global issues in 2020, 42 percent of South Koreans believed it was unlikely that women would be paid the same amount as men for the same work in 2020. In total, almost half of the respondents over the world were pessimistic about equal pay in 2020.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos on predictions for global issues in 2020, 61 percent of Saudi Arabians thought it likely that women will be paid the same as men for the same work in 2020. The female labor force participation rate in Saudi Arabia was 18.3 percent.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos on predictions for global issues in 2020, 68 percent of Malaysians believed it was likely that women would be paid the same amount as men for the same work in that year. Malaysia was one of the most optimistic out of all the countries surveyed about closing the gender pay gap in 2020. However, in another survey conducted in 2019, more than half of respondents felt that the gender equality movement had gone too far. Should the gender pay gap be closed in Malaysia, it would be despite of people's support and attitudes towards the push for gender equality.

In 2024, the apparel retailer Gap, Inc. had net sales amounting to about 15.09 billion U.S. dollars. This represents a slight increase from the 14.9 billion dollars in the previous year. In 2022, the company had cited inventory delays due to global supply chain disruptions as the primary reason for the fall in net sales, as well as strategic store closures. The fiscal year end of the company is February 1, 2025. The Gap, Inc. The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California and was founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher. The Gap is a major international clothing retailer and brand. The Gap, Inc. also owns and operates the Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta, and Intermix brands. In 2024, The Gap, Inc. operated a total of 3,569 stores. The majority of the company’s stores are in North America, with 453 Gap stores throughout the region as of 2024. Leading Apparel Companies in the United States In terms of sales, the leading American apparel company is TJX Companies, which owns brands such as TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods. However, when it comes to consumer favorites, the brand Levi's was the clothing brand viewed most favourably by consumers in the U.S. in 2024.