S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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1.6.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations living in remote and very remote Australia A very important contributing feature to statistics and discussions about the health and wellbeing of Australia’s remote population is its major constituency of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The reason for this importance is that these groups are proportionally overrepresented in the remote population compared to the national average. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples also have higher prevalence rates of disease, including chronic conditions and mental health disorders. In 2011, only one third of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in major cities of Australia (233,100 people). Remote Australia is home to 51,300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, while 91,600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in very remote Australia. In 2011 (AIHW, 2014a), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were approximately 12 times more likely to live in remote or very remote areas than non-Indigenous people (22.1% compared with 1.8%), while seven out of ten non-Indigenous people (71.9%) lived in major cities. Figure 1.3 and Table 1.2 clearly show the relationship between remoteness and higher proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents compared to non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents (AIHW, 2014a).