Overview

Despite Indigenous Australians making up a small share of the total Australian population, the need to collect and analyse data to understand the demographic, socioeconomic and health dynamics of the population far exceeds their population size. One of the uses, if not the most important use, of data about the Indigenous population is giving Indigenous people the power to tell their own story and advocate for change.

This paper explores the issues concerning and best practice for data collection for and about Indigenous people in Australia. It describes the potential users and uses of data about Indigenous Australians; discusses the availability, limitations, and adequacy of current data collections; and provides suggestions for improvements based on best practice from Australia and abroad.