







































AUSTRALIAN POPULATION STUDIES  2018 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 | pages 1–13 

 

 

© Markham and Biddle 2018. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence 3.0 Australia  
(CC BY-NC 3.0 AU). Journal website: www.australianpopulationstudies.org 

 

Recent changes to the Indigenous 
population geography of Australia: 
evidence from the 2016 Census 

Francis Markham*  The Australian National University 

Nicholas Biddle  The Australian National University 

* Corresponding author. Email: francis.markham@anu.edu.au. Address: Centre for Aboriginal 

Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University, 24 Kingsley Street, Acton, ACT 2601, 

Australia 

Paper received 15 February 2018; accepted 3 May 2018; published 28 May 2018 

Abstract 

Background  

The Indigenous population of Australia has grown very rapidly since the first tabulation of census 

statistics about Indigenous people in the 1971 ABS Census of Population and Housing (Census). 

Understanding the size and location of the Indigenous Australians is important to the State for 

service delivery and policy, and for Indigenous peoples themselves. 

Aims 

This paper summarises changes to population geography of Indigenous Australians between 2011 

and 2016. It describes the growth in the estimated population, and its changing geographic 

distribution. The paper derives a measure of ‘unexpected population change’: the spatial mismatch 

between demographic projections from the 2011 and 2016 Census counts. 

Data and methods 

Census data and population projections are tabulated and mapped. 

Results 

Indigenous people now comprise 3.3 per cent of the total Australian population, or 798,381 persons. 

This population grew by 3.5 per cent each year between 2011 and 2016, a rate of growth 34 per cent 

faster than that explained by natural increase alone. Both aspects of growth were concentrated in 

more urban parts of the country, especially coastal New South Wales and southeast Queensland. For 

the first time, fewer than 20 per cent of Indigenous people were recorded as living in remote areas.  

Conclusions 

Indigenous population growth continues to be remarkably rapid. Future research is required to 

understand the correlates and causes of population growth beyond that explained by natural 

increase.  

Key words 

Indigenous population growth; identification change; ABS Census; Indigenous population geography; 

Australia. 

  

http://www.australianpopulationstudies.org/
mailto:francis.markham@anu.edu.au


2 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

1. Introduction  

A detailed understanding of the Indigenous population in Australia is a matter of great interest to policy 

makers and Indigenous peoples. For example, knowledge of the size, composition and characteristics of 

the Indigenous population are used to inform government policy (e.g. the ‘Closing the Gap’ strategy), 

service delivery (e.g. the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery), resource 

allocation (e.g. the state-based redistribution of revenue from the federally levied goods and services 

tax (GST)) and advocacy for social justice (e.g. Calma 2006). Tabulations and estimates derived from the 

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing (Census) provide the best 

available information on the size and composition of the Indigenous population of Australia, albeit 

imperfectly. Consequently, a detailed understanding of Indigenous population change between 2011 

and 2016 is of value to policy makers, service providers and Indigenous peoples. 

The definition of the ‘Indigenous population’ is a contentious one, and the questions in the Census 

have arguably never met the needs of that population itself. Indeed, the notion of an ‘Indigenous 

population’ is a colonial construction which has been used to exclude Indigenous people and 

discriminate against them (Dodson 2003). For example, one primary imperative for counting the 

Indigenous people in federated Australia was the implementation of the nation’s discriminatory 

constitution which necessitated that Indigenous persons be excluded from official population 

estimates produced for constitutional purposes (Arcioni 2012; Chesterman and Galligan 1997). In 

practice, this meant that all people who were reached by Census collectors were asked to complete a 

Census form that included a question on ‘race’ requiring respondents to state their ‘proportion’ of 

Aboriginal heritage. Those who stated that they were ‘more than half’ Aboriginal were excluded from 

most published population statistics (ABS 2011). While this constitutional requirement was removed 

by a federal referendum in 1967, the Census has continued to ask Australian residents about their 

Indigenous origin and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future. 

Although questions designed to identify Indigenous people have been included in every Australian 

Census, it has only been since 1971 that Indigenous people have been included in the Census count. The 

purpose, wording and administration of Census questions designed to identify the Indigenous population 

have changed considerably over time. The 2011 and 2016 Census questionnaires asked about each 

person in the household: ‘Is the person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?’ Respondents 

were offered the response options of ‘No’, ‘Yes, Aboriginal’ and ‘Yes, Torres Strait Islander’, and were 

advised ‘For persons of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, mark both “Yes” boxes’. 

It is important to note that this ‘standard Indigenous question’ does not perfectly capture Aboriginal 

and Torres Strait Islander notions of indigeneity or many administrative definitions of the Indigenous 

population. However, as Walter and Andersen (2013) insist, recognition of the colonial nature of 

these categories need not entail the abandonment of statistics about Indigenous peoples. Rather, 

they argue for the reframing of statistical collections and their interpretations in a manner that 

reflects Indigenous standpoints. This paper adopts the ABS Census definition of Aboriginal and/or 

Torres Strait Islander peoples to explore Indigenous population change in Australia. 

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the changing size and spatial distribution of 

the Indigenous population of Australia, comparing the results of the 2011 and 2016 censuses. The 

paper summarises three key aspects of the intercensal change: 



Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Markham F and Biddle N 3 

 

 

• the growth in the estimated population of Indigenous Australians 

• the changing geographic distribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons 

• ‘unexpected’ population change, or the spatial mismatch between demographic projections from 

the 2011 and 2016 Census counts. 

2. Indigenous population increase 

The Indigenous population increased rapidly between 2011 and 2016. In the 2016 Census, 590,056 

people were counted as Aboriginal, 32,345 were counted as Torres Strait Islander and 26,767 were 

counted as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Combined, 649,171 people were counted as 

Indigenous, an increase of more than 100,000 people, or 18.4 per cent, since 2011. This count of the 

Indigenous population compares with 21,341,231 persons who identified as not being of Aboriginal 

or Torres Strait Islander origin, resulting in the Indigenous population making up 3.0 per cent of those 

who answered the Indigenous origin Census question, an increase from 2.7 per cent in 2011. 

The Census count underestimates the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to a 

much greater degree than it underestimates the number of other Australians. The ABS Post-

Enumeration Survey (PES), which re-interviews around 0.5 per cent of Australian households 

nationally, is used as the basis for producing population estimates (as distinct from population counts 

tabulated from the Census). In 2016, the PES sampled around 800 households from 33 discrete 

Indigenous communities.  

The Indigenous population estimate from the PES attempts to correct for at least three types of 

Census undercount (ABS 2017a): 

• First, a significant proportion of Census records do not have a response to the Indigenous status 

question (6.0% in 2016) and some of these individuals are likely to be of Aboriginal and Torres 

Strait Islander origin. Records with Indigenous status not stated come about either because that 

particular question was skipped over on the Census form or because no Census form was 

received for a dwelling that Census collectors deemed to be occupied on Census night. In the 

latter case, Census collectors impute the existence of a certain number of residents, but do not 

answer the Indigenous status question for these individuals.  

• Second, some individuals are missed by the Census – they simply do not appear on any 

household’s Census form. This could be because they were omitted from a completed Census 

form because Census collectors missed their dwelling, or because Census collectors mistakenly 

thought their dwelling was unoccupied.  

• Third, a number of individuals who are listed as not being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander 

origin on the Census form later state that they are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin 

when asked in the PES several weeks later, a survey that is administered face-to-face to most 

participants.  

After the PES is released, the ABS further adjusts the population estimate by backdating the Census-

night estimate to 30 June and estimating the number of residents temporarily overseas and thus out-

of-scope for the PES (ABS 2017b). Based on these adjustments, the ABS (2017b) estimate that there 

were 798,381 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians in August 2016. This population estimate 

is an increase of 128,000 persons from 2011, or 3.5 per cent per annum. Such rapid increase is not 

unusual for the Australian Indigenous population.  



4 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

As Table 1 shows, both the Census count and the population estimate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait 

Islander persons have increased considerably in almost every Census since the 1967 referendum. 

While the annualised growth of 3.5 per cent in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population 

between 2011 and 2016 is substantial, it is less than the mean annual growth from 1971 to 2011 of 

4.1 per cent.  

Table 1: Census count and population estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 1901–2016 

Year Census count  Population estimate Under-
count 
(%)d Indigenous 

persons 
Percentage 

of total 
counta,b 

Annual 
growth 
rate (%) 

 Indigenous 
personsc 

Percentage  
of total 

populationb 

Annual 
growth 
rate (%) 

2016 649,171 2.8 3.4  786,689 3.3 3.5 17.5 

2011 548,370 2.5 3.8  662,335 3.0 5.2 17.2 
2006 455,030 2.3 2.1  513,977 2.5 2.2 11.5 
2001 410,003 2.2 3.0  460,140 2.4 4.3 10.9 
1996 352,970 2.0 5.9  372,052 2.0 5.6 5.1 
1991 265,489 1.5 3.1  283,631 1.6 3.4 6.4 
1986 227,645 1.4 7.3  240,152 1.4 – 5.2 
1981 159,897 1.1 -0.1  – – – – 
1976 160,915 1.1 6.8  – – –  
1971 115,953 0.9 7.5  150,076 1.1 2.6 22.7 
1966e 80,750. 0.7 0.1  132,219 1.1 2.4 38.9 
1961 80,526 0.8 3.8  117,495 1.1 2.3 31.5 
1954 62,084 0.7 2.8  100,048 1.1 2.0 37.9 
1947 51,048 0.7 0.9  87,000 1.1 1.2 41.3 
1933 45,066 0.7 1.1  73,828 1.1 -0.2 39.0 
1921 39,399 0.7 2.7  75,604 1.4 -1.0 47.9 
1911 30,052 0.7 -4.6  83,588 1.8 -1.2 64.0 
1901 48,248 1.3 –  94,564 2.4 – 49.0 

Sources: Population estimates for 1901–1971 from ABS (1986) and ABS (2014a), for 1986 and 1991 from ABS (1994), for 
1996 from ABS (1996) and for 2001–2016 from ABS (2017a). Census counts for 1911 from CBCS (1917), for 1921 from CBCS 
(1927), for 1933 from CBCS (1940), for 1947 from CBCS (1952), for 1954 from CBCS (1962), for 1961 from CBCS (1967), for 
1966 from CBCS (1971), for 1901–1966 from ABS (2014a), for 1971–1991 from ABS (2004) and for 1996–2016 from ABS 
community profiles. 

Notes: All PES-derived population estimates displayed above are based on the Census of that year. To the best of the 
authors’ knowledge, the ABS did not produce estimates of the Indigenous population for censuses between 1966 and 1981. 
The 1996 PES-derived estimate is based on the estimated population at 30 June, while all other listed figures related to the 
population on Census night in early August.  
a The denominator of this percentage includes those who did not state their Indigenous status in the Census.  
b Census counts and population estimates from 1901 to 1966 are for what the ABS termed ‘full blood Aborigines’, who were 
counted in the Census and excluded from population statistics. Because of this exclusion, denominators for these percentages 
have been counted by adding the Indigenous Census counts and population estimates to the official non-Indigenous figures. 
Persons identified in the pre-1967 censuses as ‘half-caste’ were counted as non-Indigenous in these censuses and 
population estimates. 
c This column uses PES population estimates where possible (i.e. excluding those residents temporarily absent from 
Australia on Census night) in order to consistently calculate the undercount rate. 
d These undercount rates are calculated consistently using the method from the 2016 PES, and so do not match the 
published undercount rates from previous years. 
e Excludes Torres Strait Islanders. 

The Indigenous Census count – that is, the number of people identified as being of Aboriginal or 

Torres Strait origin in the Census itself, without adjustment for undercount – has also increased 

substantially, rising from 548,370 in 2011 to 649,171 in 2016. This is consistent with historical trends 

since the 1967 referendum, with the Indigenous Census count increasing in every Census during that 



Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Markham F and Biddle N 5 

 

 

period, with the exception of the 1981 Census. Concerningly, the Indigenous undercount rate, or 

difference between the population estimate and Census count, is at the highest level recorded in 

censuses since the 1980s. The undercount rate has steadily increased from 5.2 per cent in 1986 to 

17.5 per cent in 2016. While this partly reflects improvements to the population estimate, it also may 

indicate an increase in the number of households who have chosen not to participate in the Census.  

The 3.5 per cent annual growth of the Indigenous population between 2011 and 2016 outstripped 

demographic projections of population growth based on the 2011 Census by a considerable degree. 

As Figure 1 shows, around 42,000 more Indigenous people were identified to be resident in Australia 

in 2016 than the ABS had predicted in projections based on the 2011 Census. In this figure, the black 

line represents the estimate of the Indigenous population based on the Census of that year (i.e. the 

ABS’s Indigenous population estimates listed in Table 1); the shaded region indicates the range of 

population estimates for that year produced by the ABS based on the immediately previous Census. 

The ‘unexplained growth’ in the Indigenous population is illustrated by the gap between the black 

line and the shaded region.  

 

Figure 1: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimates compared with demographic population 

projections based on the previous Census, 1996–2016 

Source: ABS (2014b) for 2006, 2011 and 2016; ABS (1998) for 2001 and 1996. Notes: The population projections were 
produced by the ABS, based on the immediately previous Census (e.g. the 1996 projection is based on the 1991 Census,  
the 2001 projection is based on the 1996 Census counts, and so on). The upper bounds of the projections for 2006 and 
2001 have been modified to remove predicted unexplained population growth, which was included as a component of 
those projections only. 

Unexplained growth – estimated here as the difference between the 2011-based 2016 population 

projection and the 2016-based 2016 population estimate – accounted for around 34 per cent of 

intercensal population growth between 2011 and 2016. This unexplained growth is likely to result from 

the changing propensity of people to identify as Indigenous in the Census and PES, from changing rates 

of mixed partnering, and from changes to the methods used in administering the Census and PES. 

Figure 1 also demonstrates that the gap between the Indigenous population estimates and projections 

based on the previous Census has narrowed, compared with the growth in the Indigenous population 

between 2006 and 2011, during which around 59 per cent of growth was unexplained. 



6 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

3. A changing spatial distribution  

While the number of people counted in the censuses as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait 

Islander origin increased by 100,801 between 2011 and 2016, this growth was not evenly distributed 

across Australia. Understanding the spatial distribution of the Indigenous population is important not 

only for local service delivery, but for resource distribution. For example, the distribution of the GST 

to the states and territories is influenced by the proportion of the population who are Indigenous. 

Given that the growth of the Indigenous population has been most rapid in urban areas (Taylor 

2013), a continuation of existing trends is likely to result in a shift of the population away from parts 

of the country where the Indigenous population is more likely to live in discrete communities, and 

more likely to be experiencing extreme economic disadvantage. 

When examined at the regional level, it is clear that growth in the Indigenous Census count between 

2011 and 2016 is concentrated in the most heavily populated parts of New South Wales and 

Queensland. Figure 2 maps Indigenous population change using the 37 non-administrative 

Indigenous Regions defined by the ABS, a geography that maps approximately onto the regional 

geography used by governments to deliver services to Indigenous Australians.  

 

Figure 2: Change in the number of Indigenous people counted in the Census by Indigenous Region, 2011–2016 

Source: ABS 2011 and 2016 censuses. 

As Figure 2 above shows, counts increased the most in the Brisbane (17,463 persons), New South 

Wales Central and North Coast (17,452 persons) and Sydney–Wollongong (13,852 persons) Indigenous 



Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Markham F and Biddle N 7 

 

 

Regions. These regions accounted for almost half of the recorded gross Indigenous population growth 

(47.9%). At the other end of the spectrum, several regions experienced a decline in the number of 

people counted as being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2016 Census. Declining 

Census counts were of a much smaller magnitude than population growth, with Kununurra (745 

persons) and Alice Springs (359 persons) experiencing the largest falls in the number of Indigenous 

people counted in the Census. 

A similar but not identical geographic pattern of growth is apparent when Indigenous population change 

is mapped in terms of percentage growth rather than absolute growth. As Figure 3 shows, percentage 

population growth was high across much of southeastern Australia, with the Indigenous populations of 

Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, southern and eastern New South Wales and southeast 

Queensland all growing by more than 20 per cent between 2011 and 2016. The fastest growing regions 

were the New South Wales Central and North Coast (33.4%), Brisbane (32.8%) and Melbourne (34.5%), 

while population decline was most rapid in Kununurra (13.5%) and Alice Springs (7.2%). 

 

Figure 3: Percentage change in the number of Indigenous people counted in the Census by Indigenous 

Region, 2011–2016 

Source: ABS 2011 and 2016 censuses. 

While these results might be interpreted as suggesting that the distribution of the Indigenous 

population is becoming more similar to that of the non-Indigenous population, the Census figures do 

not tell a simple story of converging geographic distributions. Clearly, the less urbanised Indigenous 

population continues the long-term trend of becoming increasingly likely to live in cities.  



8 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

As Table 2 shows, 36.8 per cent of the Indigenous population lived in what the ABS terms ‘major 

cities’ in 2016, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 34.2 per cent in 2011, using a consistent geographic 

classification. This increase consists of a combination of natural increase, migration and statistical 

‘identification change’. Identification change occurs when an individual is classified as being of 

Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin in one Census but not the following Census, or vice versa 

(Biddle and Crawford 2015). However, during this same period, the non-Indigenous population also 

became increasingly urbanised, with 72.3 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians resident in major 

cities in 2016, an increase of 1.3 per cent from 71.0 per cent in 2011.  

Table 2: The Indigenous and non-Indigenous population count distributions by geographical remoteness, 2016 

Remoteness Indigenous 
population 

count 

Percentage of 
Indigenous 

count 

Change in 
percentage of 

Indigenous 
count, 2011–

2016 

Non-
Indigenous 
population 

count 

Percentage 
of non-

Indigenous 
population 

count 

Change in 
percentage of 

non-Indigenous 
population 

count, 2011–
2016 

Major cities   235,527  36.8 2.6  15,409,691  72.3 1.3 

Inner 
regional  

 154,087  24.1 1.7  3,858,090  18.1 -0.5 

Outer 
regional  

 130,976  20.5 -1.5  1,738,227  8.2 -0.6 

Remote   40,689  6.4 -1.0  224,485  1.1 -0.1 

Very remote   79,041  12.3 -1.9  90,897  0.4 -0.1 

Source: ABS 2011 and 2016 censuses. Notes: Not stated population excluded. Calculated on the basis of 2011 remoteness 
boundaries, using an area-based 2016 to 2011 Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) concordance. 

However, the starkest divergence in population dynamics lies in ‘inner regional’ areas, where 24.1 

per cent of Indigenous people and 18.1 per cent of non-Indigenous people now live. While the 

proportion of the Indigenous population living in inner regional areas continues to grow (up 1.7% in 

2016 from 2011), the proportion of the non-Indigenous population living in these locations fell by 0.5 

per cent between 2011 and 2016.  

Another difference between the two populations is that much of the growth of non-Indigenous 

Australians in urban areas is likely to be driven by international immigration. For the Indigenous 

population the impact of international migration is negligible, with the small percentage of 

Indigenous Australians who move overseas mostly balanced by the small percentage who return. 

Growth in urban areas is therefore likely to be made up of a combination of excess of births over 

deaths, changing patterns of identification and internal migration.  

4. The geography of unexpected population change 

Indigenous population growth between 2011 and 2016 was well above what could be explained by 

natural increase alone. As described above, the Indigenous population in Australia on Census night, 

(9 August 2016) was estimated to be 786,689 on the basis of the PES, or 3.3 per cent of the total 

Australian population (Table 1). This was around 42,000 more than the upper range of the Indigenous 

population projections based on the 2011 Census. This unexplained population growth is likely to arise 

from identification change, and potentially also from changes to enumeration and processing methods 

between the 2011 and 2016 censuses. 



Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Markham F and Biddle N 9 

 

 

There is little reason to expect that the unexplained population growth is distributed evenly across 

Australia. Although too little information has been published at present to construct detailed 

regional population estimates, including age–sex distributions, provisional estimates can be derived 

using a simple, three-step procedure, as described below.  

• First, those records with no response to the Indigenous origin question had their Indigenous 

status imputed on the basis of the percentage of respondents who identified as Indigenous in 

their Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1). This increased the Indigenous population from a count of 

643,136 (excluding those in migratory, shipping and offshore areas) to an estimate of 692,182.  

• Second, a provisional population estimate for each region was derived by multiplying these regional, 

prorated Indigenous population estimates by 1.137. This multiplier was selected so that the sum of 

all regional population estimates equalled 786,689, the national estimate derived from the PES.  

• Third, Indigenous population projections for each region for 2016, based on the 2011 Census, 

were subtracted from provisional population estimates for regions. The 2011-based projections 

were produced on the basis of natural increase and a repetition of 2006–2011 migration 

patterns. (For more detail, see Biddle 2013.) Consequently, the subtraction of the 2011-based 

projection from the 2016-based estimate gives a measure of unexpected population change for 

each region, or the spatial mismatch between projected and observed population increase. 

Because some of this population change will be explained by changing migration patterns 

between 2011 and 2016, we term this population change ‘unexpected’ rather than ‘unexplained’.  

 

Figure 4: Unexpected population change by Indigenous region, 2011–2016 

Source: Authors’ estimates based on ABS 2011 and 2016 censuses. 



10 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

Estimates of unexpected population change by Indigenous Regions are displayed in Figure 4 (above). 

Put simply, the figure shows the difference between the estimated Indigenous population in 2016, 

and the expected 2016 Indigenous population, as projected on the basis of the 2011 Census by Biddle 

(2013). Because the total Indigenous population increased faster than projected, the unexpected 

population change in most regions was positive (i.e. the Indigenous population increased faster than 

anticipated). However, in 10 of the 37 regions, unexpected population change was negative, meaning 

that the Indigenous population increased less quickly than projected. 

Much of the unexpected population increase occurred in south-eastern Australia. In particular, more 

than 75 per cent of the unexpected population increase occurred in just five regions: New South 

Wales Central and North Coast (14,844); Sydney–Wollongong (7,412); Brisbane (5,813); Riverina–

Orange (4,713); and northeastern New South Wales (3,600). While these regions were projected to 

experience substantial population increase, the actual population increase substantially exceeded 

expectations. However, not all regions saw greater than expected population growth between 2011 

and 2016. For example, the sixth most rapidly growing region, Townsville–Mackay, had an estimated 

Indigenous population increase of 4,800 persons, very close to the projected increase of 4,600. Other 

regions experienced population changes that were substantially less than projected. For example, 

the Indigenous population of Perth was projected to increase by 5,628 between 2011 and 2016, but 

instead grew by only 1,734 persons. Similarly, the Indigenous population of Alice Springs was 

projected to increase by 817 persons, but our estimates suggest that it decreased by 745 persons.  

5. Conclusions 

The quinquennial ABS Census remains the best source of information on Indigenous population 

change. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the changing size and spatial 

distribution of the Indigenous population of Australia between 2011 and 2016, with a focus on the 

geography of unexpected population change.  

The first set of analyses focused on the growth in the estimated population of Indigenous 

Australians. We showed that the Indigenous population grew rapidly between 2011 and 2016, 

reaching around 3.3 per cent of the total population estimate, or 786,689 persons. It is more than 

just a historical footnote to reflect upon the fact that this is similar to the accepted population 

estimate of the Indigenous population at the time of European colonisation (Mulvaney 2002), up 

from a low of around 72,000 at the time of the 1921 Census (which is likely to have been a significant 

undercount). Like other Indigenous groups internationally (in particular, the United States, Canada 

and New Zealand), the Indigenous population has rebounded substantially from the destruction 

wrought by frontier violence, disease and other forms of colonial domination. 

The geographic distribution of the Indigenous population is also changing. Between 2011 and 2016, 

the most rapid growth in the Indigenous population count occurred in more urban parts of the 

country, with three regions (Brisbane, the New South Wales Central and North Coast and Sydney–

Wollongong) accounting for almost half of the recorded gross Indigenous population growth. There 

continues to be a policy focus on Indigenous Australians living in remote areas. The results of this 

paper suggest that a remote focus is becoming less justifiable on the basis of population geography 

alone, as the remote Indigenous population continues to shrink as a percentage of the total 

Australian Indigenous population.  



Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Markham F and Biddle N 11 

 

 

As the economic circumstances of the remote and urban Indigenous population appear to be 

diverging, at least when measured in terms of income (Markham and Biddle 2018), the spatially 

uneven Indigenous population increase suggests that resource targeting within the Indigenous 

population may need to become a more prominent policy consideration. Indeed, while Indigenous 

disadvantage may be most concentrated in remote areas, in absolute terms there are more 

disadvantaged individuals living in urban areas. Consequently, it is important that regional 

approaches to policy do not ignore intra-regional Indigenous inequality. 

Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the growth in the population that cannot be explained by the 

excess of births over deaths. By comparing the 2016 Census data with population projections based on 

2011 data, we have shown that unexplained Indigenous population growth accounts for around 34 per 

cent of total intercensal population growth. While considerable, this proportion is less than the 

equivalent for the 2011 Census, for which around 59 per cent of intercensal growth was unexplained. 

Much of this excess or unexplained growth is likely to be caused by people changing their response in 

successive Censuses to the Indigenous ‘origin’ question, or by their Indigenous identification being 

given differently by those who respond to the Census on their behalf (see Biddle and Markham 2018).  

Previous research has shown that many Indigenous Australians are selective about the contexts in 

which they reveal their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. This research suggests that the 

propensity for an individual to identify themselves as Aboriginal often depends on their assessment 

of the risks and benefits of doing so, particularly with respect to racism and discrimination and 

whether or not identification would lead to a challenge to prove Aboriginal identity (ABS 2013; Biddle 

and Crawford 2015; NSW Aboriginal Affairs 2015). While this contextualisation is crucial to 

understanding identification, further research is needed to understand the causes of spatial variation 

in identification change, and the likelihood of continued identification change into the future. 

Indeed, our research demonstrates that the unexplained growth in Indigenous counts is neither 

spatially nor demographically consistent. While much of this growth occurred in three urban regions 

(Sydney–Wollongong, NSW North and Central Coast, and Brisbane), however there were also large 

urban regions like Perth where the population increased more slowly than expected from the 

population projections. Further research into the components of intercensal population growth 

would assist in understanding the social and demographic drivers of Indigenous population change. 

6. Key messages  

• 81.4 per cent of the Indigenous population now live in urban or regional areas. 

• The Indigenous population grew between 2011 and 2016 at a rate of 3.5 per cent per year, to an 

estimated population of 798,381. 

• The intercensal population increase of 128,000 persons is around 42,000 persons (or 34%) 

greater than can be accounted for by natural increase. This is likely to result from the changing 

propensity of individuals to identify as Indigenous in the Census or changes to the Census 

collection and processing methods. 

• Indigenous population growth was highest in coastal regions between Melbourne and Brisbane, 

while the Indigenous population of several remote regions Australia fell modestly. 

• Identification change is very spatially concentrated, and is most rapid in Tasmania, New South 

Wales and Brisbane. 



12 Markham F and Biddle N Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 

 

 

Acknowledgements 

This manuscript is based on research funded by the Australian Government Department of the Prime 

Minister and Cabinet. All opinions expressed in the paper and any errors made therein are 

attributable to the authors alone. 

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