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Aboriginal fertility: Trends and prospects

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Abstract

Estimates of Aboriginal fertility compiled from an analysis of 1981 and 1986 Census data on children ever borne by Aboriginal women reveal age-specific fertility rates slightly higher than those of other Australian women at ages above 25, but very much higher rates for younger women. The result is a total fertility ratio more than 50 per cent higher than in the total Australian population, with no more than slight variation between States and Territories. A differential analysis using standardized indices shows considerable differences in levels of fertility of categories of young Aboriginal women classified by education, labour force status and income, and also differences between urban and rural areas. Analysis of prospects for Aboriginal fertility levels confirms the likelihood of continuation in the downward drift in levels of fertility that has been established during the past decade.

Comparison of the estimates with another recent set of estimates obtained using the own-children method shows broad conformity in levels of total fertility ratios over time, except in the most recent period, the mid-1980s. Nevertheless, the own-children estimates distort the recent trend and also the age distribution of Aboriginal fertility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, ACT 2601, Canberra

    Alan Gray

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  1. Alan Gray
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The analysis in this paper was based on tabulations which were prepared from the 1986 and 1981 Census Aboriginal unit record files by Mr Bruce Dlingworth of the Aboriginal Statistics Unit of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I am grateful to Mr Illingworth for his assistance. Valuable comments on earlier drafts were made by Mr Dan Black, Dr Shailendra Jain, Dr M.G. Santow and Dr L. Ruzicka. Dr Noor Khalidi assisted with analysis of data from the Western Australian Health Department’s “midwives” collection, supplied by Ms Vivien Gee of the Epidemiology Branch of the Department. I express my gratitude to all these people for their assistance. 1 In this paper the term “Aboriginal”, unless qualified, includes Torres Strait Islanders. In tables based on 1986 or 1981 Census data, “Aboriginal” refers to any person who answered “Aboriginal” or ’Torres Strait Islander” in response to the census question on Aboriginal origin. 2 During the last few years, since the work of a Task Force on Aboriginal Health Statistics comprising representatives of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Commonwealth Department of Health and the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs, most States and Territories have been moving to identify Aboriginal births and deaths in official notification forms. It will still be some time before this develops into a reliable source of regular information on the basic demographic characteristics of the Aboriginal population.

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Gray, A. Aboriginal fertility: Trends and prospects. Journal of Population Research 7, 57–77 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03029357

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03029357

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