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The proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 and over) with a non-school qualification (e.g. from university, TAFE, etc.) has more than doubled between 1994 and 2002 - from 6% to 13%.

Excluding those who had a non-school qualification, the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who had completed Year 12 rose (from 5% in 1994 to 9% in 2002).

Despite these improvements, in 2002 Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 18 and over) were still less likely than non-Indigenous people to have a non-school qualification (18% compared with 54% respectively).

Work:

The unemployment rate for Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 and over), fell from 36% in 1994 to 13% in 2002. This change parallels the decline in the national unemployment rate (from 10% in June 1994 to 6% in December 2002).

The share of unemployed Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who had been out of work for one year or more declined (from 48% in 1994 to 29% in 2002).

The Community Development Employment Projects scheme increasingly contributed to employment of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (28% in 2002, up from 13% in 1994).

Income:

The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples' incomes remains. In 2002, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 18 and over) earned 44% of the income of non-Indigenous people ($329 per week compared to $755 per week after adjusting for household size and composition).

There was a decline in the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who received government pensions and allowances as their main source of income (from 59% in 1994 to 50% in 2002).

Health:

After adjusting for the different age structures of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory were:

• more likely than non-Indigenous people to report their health as "fair" or "poor"
• less likely to report "excellent" or "very good" health.

Over the eight years since 1994, evidence highlights stability on selected cultural indicators. In 2002 in the Northern Territory:

• 87% of Indigenous people reported attending Indigenous cultural events in the previous 12 months.
• 88% Indigenous people identified with a clan, tribal or language group.
• almost two-thirds (63%) of Indigenous people reported using an Indigenous language as their main language spoken at home.

Indigenous people in 2002 in the Northern Territory were almost one and a half times more likely to experience at least one life stressor (e.g."death of family member or close friend", "serious illness or disability", or "inability to get a job") than non-Indigenous people (88% compared with 59% respectively).

Similar to the non-Indigenous community, the overwhelming majority of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory received support from someone outside the household (88% for Indigenous people compared with 94% for non-Indigenous people).

In 1994 and 2002, around the same proportion (5%) of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 or over) reported they had been taken away from their natural family.

Law and justice:

There has been a decline in the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who reported having been arrested in the previous five years (from 19% in 1994 to 13% in 2002).

Compared to 1994, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory in 2002 were one and a half times more likely to report that they had been a victim of physical or threatened violence in the previous 12 months (17% in 2002, up from 11% in 1994).

Housing:

In the Northern Territory, the number of Indigenous people living in rented dwellings provided by Indigenous Housing Organisations or in other community housing in 2002 was 68% (up from 48% in 1994).


More details are available in National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2002 (cat. no. 4714.0). State/territory comparisons for selected indicators are available in Table 2 of the publication. Additional state and territory data cube tables are available off the publication's main features page on the ABS web site or upon request.