S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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Table 1.2 Percentage of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Non-Indigenous Populations Living in Major Cities, Remote and Very Remote Areas (Source: AIHW, 2014a)

Major Cities

Remote

Very Remote

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

34.8

7.7

13.7

Non-Indigenous

71.3 70.2

1.2 1.4

0.5 0.9

Total Australian population

With reference to Table 1.2, non-Indigenous peoples are overrepresented (as a percentage) in major cities, but decline exponentially with increasing remoteness. Conversely, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations increase, as a percentage of total population in each classification, with remoteness. This trend is important when comparing statistics between major city, remote and very remote populations concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ burden of disease and cultural socio economic disadvantage. Another important comparative demographic is age distribution across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. The Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations are quite different in their age profiles. Most notably, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a younger age profile than the non-Indigenous population (see Figure 1.3).