4713.0 - Population Characteristics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2006  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/05/2010  Final
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Contents >> Population distribution and structure >> Where Indigenous People Live

WHERE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE LIVE

Remoteness Areas

Almost one third of the preliminary estimated resident Indigenous population resided in Major Cities (32%); 21% lived in Inner Regional areas; 22% in Outer Regional areas; 10% in Remote areas and 16% in Very Remote areas. For the non-Indigenous population, there was a much higher concentration in Major Cities (69%) and less than 2% in Remote and Very Remote Australia.

ESTIMATED RESIDENT POPULATION(a) BY REMOTENESS AREAS, 30 June 2006
Graph: ESTIMATED RESIDENT POPULATION(a) BY REMOTENESS AREAS, 30 June 2006



As a result of this difference in population distribution, the Indigenous proportion of the total population increased with geographic remoteness, from 1% of the total population living in Major Cities to 48% living in Very Remote areas.

indigenous proportion of estimated resident population(a), 30 June 2006
Graph: indigenous proportion of estimated resident population(a), 30 June 2006




State and Territory

Over half of the preliminary estimated resident Indigenous population lived in either New South Wales (29%) or Queensland (28%); 15% resided in Western Australia and 13% in the Northern Territory. The distribution of the Aboriginal population across the states and territories closely reflected that of the total Indigenous population, while 64% of the Torres Strait Islander population lived in Queensland (which includes the Torres Strait Area).


Of the states and territories, Northern Territory had the largest proportion (45%) of its population living in Remote and Very Remote areas, with four-fifths (79%) of its Indigenous population living in these areas.


Indigenous people in the Northern Territory comprised about one third (32%) of the total Northern Territory population, and 13% of the Australian Indigenous population. New South Wales has the largest Indigenous population of the states and territories (148,178 or 29%); however Indigenous people represent only about 2% of the total New South Wales population.

INDIGENOUS POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
Diagram: INDIGENOUS POPULATION DISTRIBUTION



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