Eighteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

First Australians currently account for just over three percent of the national population, estimated in 2021 to be just under one million people. Unfortunately, overall First Nation Australians continue to have poorer socio-economic outcomes in health, education and employment. For example, a significant gap remains in life expectancy between Indigenous Australians and others. However, the Indigenous population in Australia is growing rapidly, at a rate above that which is possible through additions from fertility rates. Growth is most prominent in and nearby to Australia’s largest cities. Exploring research on this issue demonstrates that, to a large extent, the growth in the population is driven by socio-cultural transitions for Australia’s First Nations populations. As societal acceptance of and appreciation for Indigenous cultures, land ownership and contributions to society and communities receives growing support, more Australian’s who previously did not identify as Indigenous are choosing to do so. Teasing out this issue in population data reveals the complexity for individuals, for the sustenance of Indigenous cultures and for the ways in which Indigeneity is collected in official datasets like the five-yearly Census in Australia and beyond as the characteristics of the rapidly growing segment of the population align more closely with those of the non-Indigenous population.