Aboriginal Australia: Five per cent of the population, almost 60 per cent of the prison inmates

Hundreds march through Brisbane on November 14, 2014, rallying against Indigenous deaths in custody. (AAP)

By Jason Thomas, SBS, Dec 2, 2014

More than half of young Australians in juvenile detention facilities identify Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples, according to a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released yesterday. 

In the June 2014 quarter, during an average night, 59 per cent of the 738 inmates aged 10-17 in detention (434 people) were Indigenous.

The representation of Indigenous youth in correctional detention is in contrast to the latest population estimates for June 2014, with just about 5.5 per cent of Australians in the 10-17 year old age group estimated to be Indigenous.

Across Australia, 27.4 per cent of Australians in jail (mostly adults) were known to be Indigenous in 2013.

Indigenous people (669,881) were estimated to represent 3 per cent of Australia’s population (22,340,024) in 2011.

The estimated 124,799 Aboriginal Australians in the 10-17 year old age group would account for roughly 0.5 per cent of Australia’s population.

Population statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/02/five-cent-population-almost-60-cent-prison-inmates