REGISTERED INDIGENOUS DEATHS

Identification of Indigenous deaths

It is considered likely that most deaths of Indigenous Australians are registered. However, some of these deaths are not identified as Indigenous when they are registered. This may arise from the failure to report a person's Indigenous status on the death registration form or from an incorrect identification of their Indigenous status (that is, recording non-Indigenous instead of Indigenous) on the death certificate. Such mis-identification may occur because some Indigenous people may have non-Indigenous ancestries which may create uncertainty for those completing the death registration form as to how a deceased person should be identified.

As part of the 2006 Census Data Enhancement (CDE) project, the Indigenous Mortality Quality Study was conducted to estimate the extent of under-identification of Indigenous deaths in death registrations. The study involved linking death registrations (for 9 August 2006 to 30 June 2007) to 2006 Census of Population and Housing records, and comparing Indigenous status as recorded in the two collections. Identification rates obtained from the study were then used in the construction of experimental life tables of the Indigenous population of Australia for 2005-2007. Identification rates are presented in table 3.1.

Due to the small number of Indigenous deaths in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and Other Territories, under-identification rates are not available individually for these jurisdictions, but are presented as combined.

There is considerable variation in identification rates at the state/territory level. Identification rates are less than 1.0 for New South Wales, Queensland and the Vic./SA/Tas./ACT grouping, which indicates under-identification of Indigenous deaths in death registrations. The situation is the opposite for Western Australia and the Northern Territory, indicating an over-representation of Indigenous deaths in death registrations relative to the Census; that is, persons who were identified as Indigenous in the death registrations collection exceeded those identified as Indigenous in the Census.

For more information see Chapter 3: Data Linkage to Derive Indigenous Deaths Identification Rates of Experimental Life Tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2005-2007 (cat. no. 3302.0.55.003).

3.1 Indigenous deaths identification rates, State/territory and Australia - 2006-2007
	Identification rate
State/territory	no.
NSW	0.87
Qld	0.94
WA	1.11
NT	1.09
Vic./SA/Tas./ACT/OT combined	0.65
Aust.(a)	0.92
(a) Includes all states and territories.

The ABS continues to work with state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages and other stakeholders to improve the level of identification of Indigenous deaths in each jurisdiction. The larger numbers of Indigenous deaths recorded in Australia in recent years than those recorded in earlier years are partly due to substantial improvements in the completeness of the data.

Table 3.2 shows that improvements for Australia overall in the late 1990s were largely driven by improvements for Queensland and New South Wales. Queensland began to register deaths as Indigenous in 1996. In New South Wales the number of registered Indigenous deaths increased in 1998 to much higher levels than previous years. The numbers of Indigenous deaths registered in South Australia and the Northern Territory have remained relatively constant since 1997, suggesting that identification of deaths of Indigenous persons has been relatively stable in these jurisdictions.

An examination of the effect of data quality issues on the interpretation of trends in these data can be found in The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2008 (cat. no. 4704.0).


Indigenous status on Medical Certificate of Cause of Death

From 2007 onwards, Indigenous status for deaths registered in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory is sourced from both the Death Registration Form (DRF) and the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD). Prior to 2007, Indigenous status was sourced from the DRF only. As a result of this change, there were an additional 44 deaths recorded as Indigenous in 2008, representing a 0.7% increase in the number of deaths recorded as Indigenous for Australia overall. In addition, a further 1,652 records were reclassified from 'not stated' Indigenous status to 'non-Indigenous'.

3.2 Indigenous deaths, State/territory of usual residence(a) - 1992-2008
	NSW	Vic.	Qld(b)	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.(c)
1992	165	53	np	107	346	np	397	-	1 074
1993	194	50	np	111	386	np	376	9	1 134
1994	207	50	np	123	377	np	380	10	1 153
1995	224	50	np	121	384	np	387	9	1 182
1996	177	49	258	118	370	np	328	np	1 306
1997	88	93	531	132	351	5	458	4	1 662
1998	462	123	593	127	378	13	415	3	2 114
1999	435	130	529	116	350	11	399	6	1 976
2000	473	108	535	144	407	np	450	np	2 127
2001	481	93	565	125	345	np	429	np	2 072
2002	516	64	590	107	371	20	462	4	2 136
2003	485	82	569	137	338	23	435	9	2 079
2004	490	54	579	131	400	20	449	10	2 136
2005	507	71	519	142	406	28	454	11	2 141
2006	530	111	584	124	443	20	452	14	2 279
2007(d)	601	95	594	138	502	24	461	6	2 421
2008	559	97	562	141	605	24	467	16	2 472
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Due to differing levels of identification for the states and territories and over time, care should be taken in interpreting change in numbers of deaths. As a result, data for Australia should not be analysed as a time series.
(b) Queensland began to register Indigenous deaths as Indigenous in 1996.
(c) Includes Other Territories.
(d) From 2007 onwards, Indigenous status for deaths registered in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory is sourced from both the Death Registration Form and Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.

The standard Indigenous question

All states and territories ask for the identification of Indigenous status of the deceased on the death certificate, which must be lodged with the state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages. However, some jurisdictions have had a longer history of recording the Indigenous status of deaths than others. It has only been since the mid to late 1990s that a uniform system of identifying all Indigenous deaths in Australia has been established. The current question asks:

"Was the deceased of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?"

(If of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, tick both 'yes' boxes.)

• No
• Yes, Aboriginal origin
• Yes, Torres Strait Islander origin.

Not stated responses

In addition to those deaths identified as Indigenous, a number of deaths occur each year for which Indigenous status is not stated on the death registration form (table 3.3). In 2008 there were 1,800 deaths registered in Australia for which Indigenous status was not stated, representing 1.3% of all deaths registered. The Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales had the highest proportions of not stated responses in 2008.

As a proportion of all deaths registered, deaths for which Indigenous status was not stated increased from 1.0% in 2007 to 1.3% in 2008. This was largely due to an increase in the number of deaths in New South Wales for which Indigenous status was not stated; from 221 in 2007 to 525 in 2008. Victoria also recorded a relatively large increase, with the number of deaths for which Indigenous status was not stated increasing from 439 in 2007 to 549 in 2008. The Australian Capital Territory recorded a decrease in the number of deaths for which Indigenous status was not stated, from 107 in 2007 to 60 in 2008.

It is worth noting that the number of deaths in 2008 for which Indigenous status was not stated (1,800) is of a similar magnitude to the total number of deaths of Indigenous persons (2,500). Despite the relatively low proportion of deaths with unidentified Indigenous status (1.3%), it is likely that some of these were in fact deaths of Indigenous persons, contributing to under-identification of Indigenous deaths.

3.3 Deaths, Indigenous status - 2008
	Indigenous		Non-Indigenous		Not stated		Total
State or territory	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.
New South Wales	559	1.1	47 698	97.8	525	1.1	48 782
Victoria	97	0.3	34 851	98.2	549	1.5	35 497
Queensland	562	2.1	26 260	96.1	513	1.9	27 335
South Australia	141	1.1	12 402	98.3	73	0.6	12 616
Western Australia	605	4.7	12 067	94.6	80	0.6	12 752
Tasmania	24	0.6	4 192	99.4	3	0.1	4 219
Northern Territory	467	44.9	570	54.8	4	0.4	1 041
Australian Capital Territory	16	0.9	1 621	95.5	60	3.5	1 697
Australia(a)	2 472	1.7	139 667	97.0	1 807	1.3	143 946
(a) Includes Other Territories.

Other factors influencing identification

There are several data collection forms on which people are asked to state whether they are of Indigenous origin. Due to a number of factors the results across various collections are not always consistent. These factors may include:

• how the information is collected (e.g. census, survey, or administrative data);
• who provides the information (e.g. the person in question, a relative, a health professional, or an official);
• the perception of how the information will be used;
• educational programs about identifying as Indigenous; and
• cultural aspects associated with identifying as Indigenous.

These factors may also influence data collected for death certificates, affecting the identification of Indigenous registered deaths.

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