Summary
This report updates and extends information available about the health and well-being of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It uses the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing, Community Housing and Infrastructure Needs Survey, and National Health Survey, all collected during 2001. It also incorporates improved administrative data in a number of areas to provide a current statistical overview of the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.
The focus is generally at a national level. Therefore the analysis, comparisons and trends that are highlighted here and in the specific chapters will not capture stories about health and well-being that are particular to any community or geographic area. Some information of this kind has been chosen for presentation in boxed text inserted at appropriate locations. This is to encourage users to look beyond the data and to see the broad-based statistics as benchmark information, not the full picture.
Some of the gaps that users will find in this report are due to limitations that remain in the data. Identification of persons of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin in data collections remains incomplete and is often of unknown quality. While this point is drawn out comprehensively in Chapter 11 and need not be laboured here, it is important for readers to understand that much of what is reported may represent under-estimates of numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Preliminary material (158KPDF): List of tables and graphics; Preface; Acknowledgements
1. Introduction (97KPDF)
- Aim
- Defining health and welfare
- Scope
- Data quality
2. The demographic, social and economic context (1.43MPDF)
- Introduction
- Demographic characteristics
- Population characteristics
- Household characteristics
- Summary
3. Housing and environmental health (153KPDF)
- Introduction
- Housing
- Infrastructure
- Summary
4. Health services: provision, access and use (270KPDF)
- Introduction
- Provision of health services
- Access to health services
- Current and future Indigenous health and community services workforce
- Use of health services
- Summary
5. Community services (227KPDF)
- Introduction
- Housing assistance
- Programs for homeless people
- Child care
- Child protection
- Adoption
- Juvenile justice
- Disability services
- Aged care
- Summary
6. Mothers and babies (121KPDF)
- Introduction
- Mothers
- Babies
- Perinatal mortality
- Summary
7. Ill health (267KPDF)
- Introduction
- Self-assessed health
- Types of conditions
- Summary
8. Health risk factors (146KPDF)
- Introduction
- Breastfeeding
- Immunisation
- Nutrition
- Body weight
- Smoking
- Alcohol consumption
- Multiple risk factors: obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption and low exercise level
- Illicit drug use
- Exposure to violence
- Summary
9. Mortality (216KPDF)
- Introduction
- Life expectancy
- Deaths 1999 - 2001
- Trends in mortality
- Causes of death
- Summary
10. Torres Strait Islanders (153KPDF)
- Introduction
- Demography
- Hospital separations
- Social and economic characteristics
11. Recent developments in the collection of Indigenous statistics (185KPDF)
- Introduction
- Recent national strategic initiatives and future plans
- Performance information
- Identifying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Estimating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population
- Quality and availability of data from censuses and surveys
- Quality and availability of administrative data
Appendixes
Using Indigenous Census data (1.99MPDF)
- Discrete Indigenous communities, by remoteness structure
- Undergraduate commencements, enrolments and completions
ICD-10-AM codes used in this publication (73KPDF)
- Estimates and projections of the Indigenous population -- 1991-2006
- Experimental Indigenous estimate resident population -- 30 June 2001
Indigenous identifier, selected community services collections (55KPDF)
- Indigenous identifier, birth and perinatal collections
- Indigenous identifier, death registration and medical cause of death forms
End matter: List of symbols and abbreviations: Glossary; List of references