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
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
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