Australia has two indigenous groups, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. Taken together, these groups represent about 2% of Australia’s total population (about 386,000 out of 18.3 million).

Aboriginal people are descendants of the original peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania. The Aboriginal population is composed of people from a large number of diverse groups, with a variety of different histories, cultures, languages and geographies.

Aboriginal people are found throughout Australia. The majority of Aboriginal people live in the more densely populated urban areas of the southeast, where they represent a very small minority of the local population. In the less densely populated areas of northern and central Australia, by contrast, Aboriginal people make up a much higher proportion of the local population, but their numbers are relatively small in absolute terms.

Torres Strait Islanders are descendants of the original inhabitants of the group of islands between the northern tip of Queensland and the southeast coast of Papua New Guinea. The majority of Torres Strait Islanders live in Queensland, either in the Torres Strait or on the mainland to the south.