At the 2021 Australian census, 278,043 people in New South Wales were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. New South Wales is Australia’s most populated state, also housing Australia’s largest city, Sydney. By comparison, Australia’s second largest state, Victoria, was home to around 66 thousand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

There are around 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, which represents just over three percent of the Australian population. Indigenous people are often referred to as Australia's first people or the traditional custodians of the land in recognition of their ancestors inhabiting Australia more than 60,000 years ago. Australia's Indigenous peoples are represented by two distinct groups. Aboriginal people come from the Australian mainland. Torres Strait Islander people inhabit the group of Islands between the northern tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea and represent less than 40,000 people.

Closing the gap

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience significantly poorer health and wellbeing outcomes when compared to their non-Indigenous Australian counterparts. The average life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is around eight years shorter than that of the non-Indigenous population. In education, Indigenous Australians are also underrepresented, but attendance rates are improving and in 2019, full-time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students numbered well over 200,000 people.

The share of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Australia in 2019 was highest in New South Wales with around 33 percent of the indigenous population in Australia living there. Comparatively, the Australian Capital Territory accounted for only one percent of the country's indigenous population in that year.

This dataset presents the estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, non-Indigenous and total populations of Australia for the year ending at 30 June 2016, based on results of the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. The data is by Local Government Areas (LGA) following the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia comprises people who are of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. The Commonwealth definition of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is:

a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent who;

identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin and who is;

accepted as such by the community with which the person associates.

This data is Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data (catalogue number: 3238.0.55.001) used with permission from the ABS. For more information please visit the ABS Explanatory Notes. Please note:

AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

Where data was not published, "np" in the original data, the records have been set to null

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resident population in Australia was forecasted to increase to close to 1.1 million by 2031, based on 2016 population estimates. The forecasted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resident population for 2023 was approximately 919 thousand people.

This dataset presents the estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, non-Indigenous and total populations of Australia for the year ending at 30 June 2016, based on results of the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. The data is by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) regions following the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia comprises people who are of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. The Commonwealth definition of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is: a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent who; identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin and who is; accepted as such by the community with which the person associates. This data is Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data (catalogue number: 3238.0.55.001) used with permission from the ABS. For more information please visit the ABS Explanatory Notes. Please note: AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

In 2016, the total population of Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia was 254,842. By comparison, the state with the highest number of Torres Strait Islander residents was Queensland with over 24,000 people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are differentiated by the area of Australia their ancestors inhabited. Aboriginal people come from the Australian mainland and Tasmania, Torres Strait Islander people come from the string of islands between northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea.

Indigenous Locations (ILOC)

Indigenous Locations (ILOCs) represent small Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (urban and rural) that are near each other or that share language, traditional borders, or Native Title. Indigenous Locations (ILOCs) are geographic areas built from whole Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1s).

ILOCs usually have a minimum population of about 90 usual residents. In some cases, they may have a smaller Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population to meet statistical requirements or to better represent the local community. ILOCs combine to form Indigenous Areas (IAREs).

Using ILOCs with Census data

Use ILOCs if you require very specific information about an area. Due to their small population size, there are limitations to the quality of data at this geography level.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics (Jul2021-Jun2026), Data services and APIs, ABS Website, accessed 25 July 2023.

https://www.abs.gov.au/website-privacy-copyright-and-disclaimer#copyright-and-creative-commons

This dataset presents the estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, non-Indigenous and total populations of Australia for the year ending at 30 June 2016, based on results of the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. The data is by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) regions following the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia comprises people who are of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. The Commonwealth definition of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is:

a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent who;

identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin and who is;

accepted as such by the community with which the person associates.

This data is Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data (catalogue number: 3238.0.55.001) used with permission from the ABS. For more information please visit the ABS Explanatory Notes. Please note:

AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

Where data was not published, "np" in the original data, the records have been set to null

This dataset has been developed by the Australian Government as an authoritative source of indigenous location names across Australia. It is sponsored by the Spatial Policy Branch within the Department of Communications and managed solely by the Department of Human Services.

The dataset is designed to support the accurate positioning, consistent reporting, and effective delivery of Australian Government programs and services to indigenous locations.

The dataset contains Preferred and Alternate names for indigenous locations where Australian Government programs and services have been, are being, or may be provided. The Preferred name will always default to a State or Territory jurisdiction's gazetted name so the term 'preferred' does not infer that this is the locally known name for the location. Similarly, locational details are aligned, where possible, with those published in State and Territory registers.

This dataset is NOT a complete listing of all locations at which indigenous people reside. Town and city names are not included in the dataset. The dataset contains names that represent indigenous communities, outstations, defined indigenous areas within a town or city or locations where services have been provided.

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 Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2), 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.

The number of Aboriginal people and their proportion of the total Aboriginal population for 5 year age groups to 65+, 2015. Aboriginal as used in this workbook refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (all entries that were classified as not shown, not published or not applicable were assigned a null value; no data was provided for Maralinga Tjarutja LGA, in South Australia). The data is by LGA 2015 profile (based on the LGA 2011 geographic boundaries). For more information on Indigenous population estimates refer to: http://phidu.torrens.edu.au/. Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data developed by Prometheus Information Pty Ltd, under a contract with the Australian Government Department of Health.

The average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia is just one indicator of the gap in health outcomes that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. From 2015 to 2017, the average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island men and women in major cities in Australia was 72.1 and 76.5 years, respectively. By comparison, the non-Indigenous population lived around eight years longer on average. This divide is even more pronounced in rural and very remote areas where the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders drops to below 70 years.

Closing the gap

Over the past decade the federal, state and territory Governments of Australia have been working toward closing the gap of inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with the Closing the Gap Framework, introduced in 2008. The Framework identified seven target areas for improving the health and wellbeing outcomes of Indigenous Australians. These target areas covered early childhood, schooling, health, economic participation, healthy homes, safe communities, and governance and leadership. In 2020, school enrollment rates were steadily increasing and more Indigenous Australians were attaining a bachelor degree. As a result, the schooling target was considered to be ‘on track’ along with early childhood education participation.

More work to be done

Although two of the seven targets were ‘on track’ in 2020, the other five Closing the Gap targets were not. This indicated that Australia still has a long way to go in order to significantly reduce the gap of disadvantage faced by indigenous Australians. This is evident in the proportion of Aboriginal Australians who remain unemployed or not in the labor force and Indigenous youth incarceration rates, which have been increasing.

In 2021, the proportion of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people living in major cities in Australia amounted to 41.1 percent of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population. By comparison, 73.7 percent of the non-Indigenous population lived in major cities. Although the majority of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population lived in major cities and inner regional areas, almost one in ten lived in very remote communities.

The number of Aboriginal people and their proportion of the total Aboriginal population for 5 year age groups to 65+, 2015. Aboriginal as used in this workbook refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (all entries that were classified as not shown, not published or not applicable were assigned a null value; no data was provided for Maralinga Tjarutja LGA, in South Australia). The data is by LGA 2015 profile (based on the LGA 2011 geographic boundaries). For more information on Indigenous population estimates refer to: http://phidu.torrens.edu.au/. Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data developed by Prometheus Information Pty Ltd, under a contract with the Australian Government Department of Health.

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.

Here we provide a catalogue of variants called after sequencing the exomes of 50 Aboriginal individuals from the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia and compare these to 72 previously published exomes from a Western Australian (WA) population of Martu origin. Sequence data for both NT and WA samples were processed using an ‘intersect-then-combine’ (ITC) approach, using GATK and SAMtools to call variants. The data is provided as 2 VCF files, one for the WA population and one for the NT population.

The number of Aboriginal males and their proportion of the total Aboriginal male population for 5 year age groups to 65+, 2015. Aboriginal as used in this workbook refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (all entries that were classified as not shown, not published or not applicable were assigned a null value; no data was provided for Maralinga Tjarutja LGA, in South Australia). The data is by LGA 2015 profile (based on the LGA 2011 geographic boundaries). For more information on Indigenous population estimates refer to: http://phidu.torrens.edu.au/. Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data developed by Prometheus Information Pty Ltd, under a contract with the Australian Government Department of Health.

Whole exome sequencing (WES) is a popular and successful technology which is widely used in both research and clinical settings. However, there is a paucity of reference data for Aboriginal Australians to underpin the translation of health-based genomic research. Here we provide a catalogue of variants called after sequencing the exomes of 50 Aboriginal individuals from the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia and compare these to 72 previously published exomes from a Western Australian (WA) population of Martu origin. Sequence data for both NT and WA samples were processed using an ‘intersect-then-combine’ (ITC) approach, using GATK and SAMtools to call variants. A total of 289,829 variants were identified in at least one individual in the NT cohort and 248,374 variants in at least one individual in the WA cohort. Of these, 166,719 variants were present in both cohorts, whilst 123,110 variants were private to the NT cohort and 81,655 were private to the WA cohort. Our data set provides a useful reference point for genomic studies on Aboriginal Australians.

The number of Aboriginal people and their proportion of the total population. The data is estimated resident populations (ERP non-ABS) developed by Prometheus Information, 2015 (all entries that were classified as not shown, not published or not applicable were assigned a null value; no data was provided for Maralinga Tjarutja LGA, in South Australia). The data is by LGA 2015 profile (based on the LGA 2011 geographic boundaries). For more information on Indigenous population estimates refer to: http://phidu.torrens.edu.au/. Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data developed by Prometheus Information Pty Ltd, under a contract with the Australian Government Department of Health.

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.