Demographic and headline measures

Demography

Information in this section is derived from the 2021 Census. Census population figures differ from the estimated resident population (ERP) figures presented in the primary Demography section of this report.

Based on the 2021 Census, 237,000 people living in Queensland identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, representing approximately 4.6% of all people in Queensland, an increase from 3.6% in 2011.¹ Of these:

• 81.5% identified as Aboriginal
• 9.2% as Torres Strait Islander
• 9.3% as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.²

Based on Census figures, the number of people that identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander increased from 2011 to 2021 by:

• 37.1% for 0 to 14 year olds
• 56.6% for 15 to 64 year olds
• 145.1% for those 65 years and older.¹

Between the 2011 and the 2021 Census, the median age of people identifying as First Nations in Queensland increased from 20 to 23 years and 52.4% were under 25 years, down from 56.5% in 2011.

The Queensland Local Government Area (LGA) with the highest count of First Nations peoples was Brisbane, home to 9.7% of the overall Queensland First Nations population.² However the LGA with the highest proportion of First Nations peoples was Cherbourg—96.4% of the total LGA census counts.

Housing

Most First Nations households (79.7%) were family households and 14.5% were lone person households, an increase from 12.1% in 2011.² Overcrowding in First Nations peoples’ dwellings declined from 12.6% in 2011 to 9.6% in 2021 and home ownership increased for:

• mortgaged dwellings increased from 24.0% to 26.4%
• the proportion of dwellings owned outright increased from 9.7% to 12.5%.¹

Education

Educational outcomes have improved for First Nations peoples in Queensland:

• 66.6% of 20 to 24 year olds (70.0% for females and 63.2% for males) had completed Year 12 or equivalent as their highest year of school in 2021, up from 48.1% in 2011²
• when non-school Certificate level III or above qualification are included, this increases to 75.0% of 20 to 24 year old First Nations peoples in Queensland attaining year 12 or equivalent qualifications, up from 60.9% in 2011³
• 10.2% of 18 to 24 year olds (13.9% for females and 6.5% for males) were attending university or other higher education institutions at the time of the 2021 Census, up from 6.4% in 2011.²

Income

Equivalised total weekly household income of $1,000 or more was reported by 35.7% of First Nations households in 2021 compared to 36.7% of First Nations households nationally. The median equivalised weekly income was $826 ($830 nationally).²

Headline health indicators

Life expectancy

The most recent life expectancy estimates for First Nations peoples in Queensland are for 2015–2017. At that time, the life expectancy at birth in Queensland for First Nations peoples was 72.0 years for males and 76.4 years for females.⁴ By comparison, life expectancy for other Queenslanders was 79.8 years and 83.2 years for males and females, respectively.⁴ Across Australia, life expectancy was lower for First Nations peoples living in remote and very remote areas.⁴

Mortality

In Queensland:

• The age-standardised mortality rate (ASR, or standardised rate) for First Nations peoples in 2021 in Queensland was 9.6 per 1,000 persons compared to 5.2 per 1,000 persons for other Queenslanders. Standardised rates were higher for males (10.8 per 1,000 persons) than for females (8.5 per 1,000 persons)
• Infant mortality rates were higher for First Nations peoples—5.7 compared to 3.7 per 1,000 live births for First Nations Queenslanders compared to other Queenslanders in 2021.
• The perinatal mortality rate in Queensland for the period 2017–2021 was 11.1 per 1,000 births (live and stillbirth) for mothers who identified as First Nations peoples, compared to 9.3 per 1,000 for births for mothers who did not identify as First Nations peoples.⁵

Leading causes of death

The leading cause of death for First Nations infants under 1 year of age was conditions arising in the perinatal period (3.5 per 1,000 live births) and the mortality rate for congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities was 0.9 per 1,000 live births.⁵

Table 1 shows the 10 leading causes of death for First Nations peoples in Queensland in 2021, with the corresponding ranking for other Queenslanders for the same cause.

• While ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of death for both First Nations peoples and other Queenslanders, diabetes is the 2nd leading cause for First Nations peoples in Queensland, while it is the 8th for other Queenslanders.⁵ Overall, for First Nations peoples in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, the standardised death rate declined for:
  • IHD from 133.4 per 100,000 in 2012 to 105.5 per 100,000 in 2021
  • diabetes, from 86.4 to 71.3 per 100,000 for 2012 and 2021, respectively.
• The 3rd (lung cancer) and 4th (chronic lower respiratory diseases) leading causes of death were conditions that are associated with smoking. The standardised death rate for First Nations peoples in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory increased for:
  • lung cancer from 59.0 per 100,000 in 2012 in 2012 to 66.2 per 100,000 in 2021
  • chronic lower respiratory disease from 60.4 per 100,000 in 2012 to 73.1 per 100,000 in 2021.⁵
• The leading causes of death for First Nations peoples have remained the same for the periods 2012–2016 and 2017–2021.⁵

Intentional self-harm is the 5th leading cause of death for First Nations peoples (2nd for males and 7th for females), while it is 10th for other Queenslanders. In the period 2017–2021:

• there were 318 deaths due to suicide in First Nations peoples in Queensland
• the standardised suicide rate was 28.1 per 100,000 persons—an increase from 22.8 per 100,000 persons in the period 2012–2016
• Rates were highest in males in all age groups.⁵

Remoteness

The Mortality section of this report shows that people living in remote areas have higher mortality rates than those living in other areas. Health disparities between First Nations peoples and other Queenslanders are evident in both urban and remote area for several health outcomes. The magnitude of the disparity, however, is often greater in remote areas (Figure 1). This suggests that improving the health of First Nations peoples in remote areas is important for both the health of First Nations peoples as well as to improving remote health more broadly.

Hospitalisation

In 2020–21, the standardised all cause hospitalisation rate for First Nations Queenslanders was 1,023.6 per 1,000, compared to 488.7 per 1,000 for other Queenslanders (Figure 2).

The gap in hospitalisation rates between First Nations Queenslanders and other Queenslanders is widening—while the rate ratio was 1.8 times higher in 2006-07, it was 2.1 times higher for First Nations peoples than other Queenslanders in 2020–21.

For the 3-year period 2018–19 to 2020–21, hospitalisation rates were higher for females (1,061.2 per 1,000) than for males (909.9 per 1,000). Based on ICD-10-AM chapter, the differences between First Nations peoples and other Queenslanders were most evident for Factors influencing health status and contact with health services, driven primarily by higher hospitalisation rates for renal dialysis among First Nations peoples.

Remoteness

Disparities in hospitalisation rates are wider in regional and remote areas than in urban areas and rates for First Nations Queenslanders are higher than for other Queenslanders (Figure 3).

• Compared to other Queenslanders living in the same areas, standardised hospitalisation rates for First Nations peoples were 3.2 times higher in outer regional areas and 2.7 times higher in remote and very remote areas.
• Compared to First Nations peoples in major cities, standardised hospitalisation rates were 1.6 times higher for First Nations peoples in remote or very remote areas.
• For other Queenslanders, standardised hospitalisation rates in remote and very remote areas were lower than those in major cities (433.7 and 486.6 per 1,000 persons respectively).

Potentially preventable hospitalisations

Potentially preventable hospitalisations are an indicator of unmet need for primary health care. Timely, effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment reduces the risk of the onset of disease or progression to more severe disease requiring hospitalisation.⁶

Reducing the number of selected potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPHs) for First Nations peoples is a national health system performance measure⁶ and is part of the Queensland Department of Health’s Strategic Plan 2021–2025.⁷ In 2020–21, the standardised PPH rate for First Nations peoples was 73.1 per 1,000 persons, while it was 28.0 per 1,000 persons for other Queenslanders. The higher rates were observed for all PPHs categories (Figure 4).

The top five PPHs for First Nations peoples in Queensland overall for 2020–21 were:

• cellulitis (4.4%)
• diabetes complications (3.7%)
• urinary tract infections including pyelonephritis (3.6%)
• dental conditions (3.3%)
• and convulsions and epilepsy (3.1%).

PPH conditions varied by remoteness. While the rate ratio between those living in major cities to those living in remote and very remote for other Queenslanders was 1.4 (36.6 and 26.9 per 1,000 people for remote/very remote and major cities, respectively), it was 1.9 for First Nations people (107.9 and 55.4 per 1,000 people for remote/very remote and major cities, respectively) (Figure 5).

Additional information

Data and statistics

Visit the following websites for more information:

• Census
• Life tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2015-2017
• Causes of Death, Australia.

Strategies and information

Visit Making Tracks Together: Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equity Framework for information about Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equity Framework.

Section technical notes

Death data for recent periods are preliminary and subject to change. Refer to Causes of Death, Australia on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website for further information.

The mortality data presented in this section is based on the year of registration, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Thus, any late registrations that have occurred during the reference year may not have been included. The differences in the proportion of death that are registered late between the First Nations persons and others may have impact on the measure of differences between the population groups.

For more information, refer to the Deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people section within the Causes of Death publication and Technical Note of the Deaths, Australia 2010 publication.

The ICD coding system is maintained by the World Health Organization and provides internationally comparable mortality and morbidity statistics over time and between regions. In Australia, the ICD-10 were adapted for the Australian context from the WHO ICD system. The ICD-10-AM is now maintained by the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA).

Multiple factors may cause a person’s hospital admission. The principal diagnosis is the one deemed chiefly responsible for the admission.

Hospitalisation data reported in this section were sourced from the Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection (QHAPDC). Individual record in the QHAPDC are episode based, meaning that multiple episodes from a same person will be counted multiple times in a reporting period.

Separations from interstate residents, public psychiatric hospitals, and those flagged as unqualified newborns, organ donors or boarders are excluded. Records from 47 previously declared hospitals are excluded.

Unless otherwise stated, age-standardised rates were calculated by standardising to 2001 Australian standard population for 0-65+ age groups.

Separations for interstate residents, public psychiatric hospitals, and those flagged as unqualified newborns, organ donors or boarders are excluded. Records from 47 previously declared hospitals are excluded.

For definition on selected potentially preventable hospitalisations, refer to coding standards in METEOR on the Australian Institute of Health website.

References

1. Queensland Government Statisticians Office. 2022. Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, Census 2021 snapshot. Brisbane: Queensland Treasury.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Queensland: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population summary. Accessed: 7 March 2023.
3. Productivity Commission. 2023. Closing the gap dashboard. Accessed: 1 March 2023.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2018. Life tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2015-2017. Canberra: ABS.
5. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Causes of death, Australia. Accessed: 8 March 2023.
6. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2023. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework. Canberra: AIHW.
7. Queensland Health. 2022. Department of Health strategic plan 2021-2025. Brisbane: Queensland Government.