The term Indigenous is a term that has evolved through international law to acknowledge the particular relationship of the original inhabitants of a country or geographical region to their lands. In Australia, the term Indigenous refers to people who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. The Indigenous community of Australia is diverse and comprised of a wide range of cultural groups speaking many different languages.

The following data is derived from the 2016 Census:

• About 649,200 people or 3% of the Australian population identified as being of Indigenous origin. Between the 2011 and 2016 Censuses, the Indigenous population increased by 18% or 100,800 people.
• Of this group, 590,100 people (91%) stated they were of Aboriginal origin only and 32,300 people (5%) reported to be of Torres Strait Islander origin only. 26,800 people (4%) reported to be of both origins.
• The States/Territories with the highest Indigenous populations are New South Wales (216,200 or 33% of the total Indigenous population of Australia), Queensland (186,500 or 29%), Western Australia (76,000 or 12%) and the Northern Territory (58,200 or 9%).
• Around 25% of people in the Northern Territory are of Indigenous origin. In all other States/Territories [3] , Indigenous Australians comprise less than 5% of total state populations.
• Most Torres Strait Islander people (62%) live in Queensland while 15% live in New South Wales and 6% live in the Victoria.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, Customised tables

• Around 26% of Australians were born overseas and 67% were born in Australia. [4]
• Around 19% of people were born in non-English speaking countries compared to 8% who were born in English speaking countries [5] other than Australia.
• The largest overseas born group comprised people born in the United Kingdom [6] (1,087,800 people or 5% of the population) followed by New Zealand (518,500 people or 2%), then China [7] (509,600 people or 2%) and India (455,400 people or 2%). No other individual country accounted for more than 1%.
• The State with the largest number of overseas born people was New South Wales (2,072,500 people) followed by Victoria (1,680,300 people) and Queensland (1,015,900 people). Western Australia had the highest proportion of overseas born residents (32%) excluding Other Territories [8] which also reported 32% in 2016.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, Customised tables

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, Customised tables

Ancestry

• About 47% of respondents indicated that both parents were born in Australia.
• About 45% of respondents indicated that at least one of their parents was born overseas.
• About 22% of first responses to the ancestry question indicated that they were of Australian ancestry.
• The most common first response ancestries other than Australian identified by respondents were English, Irish, Chinese, Scottish, Italian, and Indian. Other common ancestries identified were German, Greek, Vietnamese, Filipino and Lebanese.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, Customised tables

The information in this section is derived from the Australian Government, Department of Home Affairs – Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian programme.