Indigenous Peoples Are Overrepresented in Australian Prisons

Despite making up just 3.8 percent of the general population, Indigenous people account for nearly a third (31.8 percent) of the prisoners in Australia. While the total number of incarcerated adult Australians is on the decline, having dropped by 5.5 percent since 2018, from 42,974 to 40,591 in 2022, the same cannot be said of First Australian prisoners. In that time, the number of incarcerated Indigenous adults rose by 8.9 percent from 11,849 in 2018 to 12,902 in 2022. This data, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, once more shines a spotlight on the severe inequalities that persist between First Nations people and the non-Indigenous population.