New Closing the Gap data shows mixed progress

Media release

Released 18 / 03 / 2026

The latest update of the Productivity Commission’s Closing the Gap Dashboard, which measures progress towards the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, adds a new year of data for six of the socio-economic targets and 20 supporting indicators.

Following this update, four targets are on track to be met, five show improvement but are not on track, two show no change from the baseline, and four are worsening.

This update shows positive outcomes for land mass and sea country subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests (targets 15A and 15B), where the targets remain on track to be met.

However, progress for babies born with a healthy birthweight (target 2) has gone from ‘improvement but not on track’ to ‘no change from baseline’. In 2023, 88.9% of babies were born at a healthy birthweight.

Young people in detention (target 11) also shows no change from the baseline year. In 2024-25, the rate was 25.7 per 10,000 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Rates of suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have continued to worsen (target 14). In 2024, the age-standardised suicide rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 33.9 per 100,000 people – the highest rate since the baseline year.

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in prison has continued to increase and the imprisonment rate has also worsened (target 10). Nationally, the imprisonment rate was 2,500.2 per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in 2025.

The dashboard update includes data on two supporting indicators for the first time – homelessness and developmental outcomes in young children – and updates to a further 20 indicators.

Supporting indicators can provide insights for outcome areas where targets cannot yet be assessed. For example, while progress for target 13 (family violence) cannot be assessed, the supporting indicator on hospitalisations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 15 years or over for family violence-related assaults shows a decrease since the baseline year.

‘Progress remains uneven across the socio-economic outcome areas,’ said Commissioner Selwyn Button.

‘These results highlight the importance of governments continuing to implement the commitments in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.’

‘We will be looking at this closely in our next review of governments’ progress towards the Agreement, which we are due to commence this year.’

There is no nationally agreed process to determine the relevant contributions required from each state and territory towards the targets. However, the dashboard highlights areas where states and territories have shown improvement, a worsening, or no change against each target. Following this update, progress against the targets is as follows:

• NSW – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 4 (child development), 10 (imprisonment) and 11 (youth detention)
• Victoria – improvement for most targets. Worsening against target 12 (children in out-of-home care)
• Queensland – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 10 (imprisonment), 11 (youth detention) and 12 (out-of-home care)
• WA – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 2 (birthweight), 4 (child development) and 10 (imprisonment)
• SA – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 7 (youth engagement), 10 (imprisonment) and 12 (out-of-home care)
• Tasmania – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 4 (child development), 9A (housing), 10 (imprisonment) and 12 (out-of-home care)
• ACT – improvement for most targets. Worsening against targets 4 (child development), 9A (housing), 10 (imprisonment) and 11 (youth detention)
• NT – improvement against half the targets. Worsening against targets 1 (female life expectancy), 3 (early childhood education), 4 (child development), 7 (youth engagement), 8 (employment), 10 (imprisonment) and 11 (youth detention).

As part of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Productivity Commission has responsibility for publishing information that will inform reporting on progress against the Agreement. The Closing the Gap Dashboard provides the most up-to-date information available on the targets and supporting indicators specified in the Agreement.

The Closing the Gap Dashboard can be accessed from: 

www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data

Media requests

Media team – 02 6240 3330 / media@pc.gov.au