The Voice: Map highlights where First Nations Australians live

Our First Nations Peoples have lived on this continent for about 60,000 years. But where do Indigenous people live in Australia in 2023?

As we all know, Australia’s First Nations Peoples have been living on our continent for about 60,000 years, and represent the oldest continuous culture on earth.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is a rich tapestry of different groups with their own culture, customs, laws and languages.

According to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, there are more than 250 Indigenous languages comprising about 800 dialects.

This cultural diversity means that, wherever you are in Australia, you are on the lands and waters of our First Nations Peoples — towns and cities that you may better know by their English placenames, but which have ancient Indigenous names, and an ancient history; the Eora nation of Sydney, the Kaurna people of Adelaide, the Larrakia of Darwin, the Whadjuk of Perth.

Historic records and maps, like this one from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, help us trace the geographic boundaries belonging to the First Nations Communities that have lived her for millennia.

But where do Australia’s Indigenous people live now?

As Australians prepare to cast their vote in the Voice Referendum on October 14, we’ve mapped Australia’s Indigenous population by Local Government Area (LGA), using official statistics from the 2021 Census.

Scroll around the map (above) to see how many people identified as being of Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander origin in every LGA in the country.

You can also explore the data by typing in your own LGA in the searchable table beneath the map.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 812,728 people, or 3.2 per cent of Australia’s total population, identified as being of Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Census, a 25 per cent increase on the number recorded in the 2016 Census.

The state or territory with the biggest increase, in real terms, was New South Wales, where the Indigenous population rose by 61,867 people, or 29 per cent, from 216,176 to 278,043 people. Queensland was next with an increase of 50,821 people, or 27 per cent, from 186,482 to 237,303 people.

Originally published as The Voice: Map highlights where First Nations Australians live