Demographic details

In 2015–17, life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal people in NSW was 70.9 for males and 75.9 for females, compared to 80.2 years for non-Aboriginal males and 83.5 years for non-Aboriginal females.

In 2016, the disability rate for Aboriginal people in NSW was 7.6 per cent, compared to 5.4 per cent for the NSW population overall.

In 2016, just over 67 per cent of NSW Aboriginal people aged 20 to 24 had completed Year 12 or higher. This compares to over 89 per cent in the non-Aboriginal population.

In 2018, 2,782 Aboriginal people commenced university in NSW, a significant improvement compared to 2004, when that figure was just 972. In 2016, 45 per cent of Aboriginal people aged 15 or over had a post-school qualification, compared to 59 per cent of non-Aboriginal people.

In 2016, 46 per cent of Aboriginal people in NSW aged 15 or over were employed, compared to 65 per cent of non-Aboriginal people in the same age group.

Between 2006 and 2011, there was a 33 per cent increase in the number of Aboriginal employers. In 2011, 8 per cent of employed Aboriginal people in NSW were owners, managers or contributing family workers, compared to 17 per cent of the non-Aboriginal workforce.

In 2019, 6,754 Aboriginal children and young people were in out-of-home care in NSW.

In the same year (2018–19), 196.8 in every 1,000 Aboriginal children or young people were the subject of a Risk of Significant Harm report – more than four times the rate for non-Aboriginal children or young people (44.7 per 1,000).

In 2019, Aboriginal people in NSW were 9.3 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Aboriginal people, and 74 per cent had previously been imprisoned, compared to 47 per cent of non-Aboriginal people. In the June quarter of 2019, Aboriginal children and young people aged 10 to 17 were 13 times more likely to be detained than non-Aboriginal people the same age (19.7 per 10,000, compared to 1.5).