The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Australia has reached one million.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released Wednesday projected the Indigenous population had increased by more than 50,000 since June 2021, when there were 983,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, according to census data.
Indigenous peoples make up 3.8 per cent of Australia’s total population.
By 2031, the indigenous population is expected to reach almost 1.2 million.
In June 2021, 40.8 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in major cities, while 43.8 per cent lived in regional areas.
About 15 percent lived in remote or very remote regions.
“We are projecting a higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in large cities, and a smaller proportion living in remote and very remote areas of Australia,” said the bureau’s chief demographic statistician Beidar Cho.
Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria are expected to experience the fastest population growth among Indigenous peoples.
One third of the indigenous population are children aged 14 or younger
In June 2021, 40.8 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in major cities
Population rates in these jurisdictions are projected to be between 2 and 2.4 percent.
The high growth rates are due to relatively large cohorts of Indigenous people entering prime childbearing age and to presumed interstate migration, particularly to Queensland and Victoria.
Ms. Cho said population growth will continue until 2031 in most indigenous regions, which are geographic areas based on historical boundaries.
“Perth in Western Australia is projected to be the fastest growing Indigenous region (growing by 2.7 to 2.8 per cent on average annually over the next 10 years), followed by Brisbane in Queensland (growing by 2.6 to 2.8 per cent),” he said.
In 2021, the median age of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 24 years, compared with 38.9 years for non-Indigenous Australians.
One third of the Indigenous population are children aged 14 or under, while people aged 65 or over make up around five per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
The proportion of people aged 65 and over is expected to rise to around seven percent by 2031.