Remote indigenous 'happier': ABS

29 Sep 2010, 3:02 pm   -   Source: AAP
2 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
2
The report compared urban and remote experiences. (AAP)

The report compared urban and remote experiences. (AAP)

New ABS Statistics show that indigenous people in remote areas may be economically more advantaged, but said they felt happier more of the time than urban counterparts.

RELATED

Indigenous people in remote parts of Australia are happier than their city counterparts despite being more disadvantaged, a new report shows.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released a series of social trends reports on Wednesday, including: "The city and the bush, indigenous wellbeing across remoteness areas".

The report showed Aboriginal people make up just three per cent of Australia's total population and are 12 times more likely to live remotely.

In remote areas, 79 per cent of Aboriginal people aged 15 years or older reported feeling happy, some or most of the time.

In the major cities, the report showed 68 per cent were happy and in regional areas 73 per cent were happy at least some of the time.

"Indigenous people living in remote areas are more likely to report higher levels of attachment to their culture as measured by their language spoken, participation in cultural events and identification with clan, tribe or language group," the report said.

In 2008, 42 per cent of indigenous people above the age of 15 in remote areas spoke an Aboriginal or Torres Strait language at home, compared to just two per cent in major cities and regional areas.

The most commonly attended cultural activities among Aboriginal people in remote areas were funerals, or sorry business, and sporting events, while those living the regional areas and cities were more likely to attend NAIDOC Week celebrations.

Income disparity more apparent in remote areas

The report said there had been improvements in wellbeing for indigenous Australians over the past decade, but that inequality still existed between remote, regional and metropolitan parts of
Australia.

It said the income disparity between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians was most apparent in remote areas, where more than half of the households were at the bottom end of the scale in income distribution nationally.

While there was a five per cent decrease between 2002 and 2008 in the number of remotely-based Aborigines living in overcrowded conditions, more than half of them, or about 66,000 people, continue to live in houses with an insufficient number of bedrooms.

In contrast, 16 per cent of indigenous people in major cities lived in overcrowded conditions, while in regional areas the figure was 23 per cent.

The report said overcrowding often led to structural problems in the building and a lack of basic kitchen and bathroom facilities.

"At best, such inadequacies may make conditions uncomfortable, but they may also pose significant risks to health or safety," it said.

"Overcrowded housing presents a number of risks such as increasing the chances of spreading infectious diseases and interpersonal conflict."

The report said overcrowding may also impair childrens' education through decreased opportunities to study or get sufficient sleep.

The proportion of Aboriginal people aged between 15 and 24 who are fully engaged in either study or employment increased between 2002 and 2008 from 47 per cent to 54 per cent.

More than 70 per cent of young indigenous Australians living in a major city had completed year 10 or higher, compared to 64 per cent in regional areas and 59 per cent in remote areas.

Remotely-based indigenous people aged between 25 and 34 were the least likely to have a non-school qualification.

"This may be in part due to young people having to move out of remote areas to study, or to use their qualification in employment," the report said.

Although smoking was more prevalent among Aboriginal people in remote communities, indigenous Australians in the major cities were less likely to describe their health as good or better.

In remote areas, fewer people consumed alcohol but a high portion of those who did drink, drank at high risk levels.

Aboriginal people in major cities were more likely to report feeling unsafe after dark.

The report partly attributes this attitude the fact that in 95 per cent of violent assaults in remote areas, the perpetrator was known to the victim, compared with 73 per cent in the cities.



 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

MEMCG-H

Marlene Hastings - from Lismore Heights, 2 years ago

When you see the beautiful picturesque areas that they live in and look after as their own - it's no wonder they are happier. There would be many a person that would envy them in some way.

Sloppy

Mick morrison - from Adelaide, 2 years ago

Very poor form to see SBS using the offensive and insensitive term 'Aboriginies' in their work. If your journalists don't know why this is offensive and problematic, they should not be reporting on Indigenous affairs.

Hi Mick,

Thanks for posting your comments.

This story fed into our system automatically, and our editors have now removed the offensive references.

SBS is deeply committed to the accurate and respectful representation of all people.

SBS Moderator

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.