Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieve their full learning potential.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (20–24 years old) attaining Year 12 or equivalent qualification to 96%.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20–24 years who have attained a minimum of Year 12 or equivalent, or Certificate level III or above qualification.

The measure is defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20–24 years old who have attained a school qualification of Year 12 or equivalent, or a non‑school qualification at Certificate level III or above based on the Australian Qualifications Framework

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the population aged 20-24 years old

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

15 June 2023

Target

A high or increasing proportion is desirable.

Name: ABS Census of Population and Housing, Census Table Builder (Basic)

Frequency: Five‑yearly

Documentation (links): www.abs.gov.au/census

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Provider area: Census

2016

2021

2031

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by remoteness area.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintile.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by disability status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by attainment category.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

Counting rules

The data is for all Australian residents enumerated in the Census that reported having a usual residence in Australia.

Geographical variables are based on a person's place of usual residence (on Census night).

Includes (numerator):

• people who have attained Year 12 or equivalent, or who have attained a non-school qualification (Certificate Level III or IV, Diploma or Advanced Diploma, Bachelor Degree, Graduate Diploma/Certificate or a Postgraduate Degree).

Includes (both numerator and denominator):

• Australian totals include all states and territories (including Other Territories).

Excludes (numerator):

• people whose certificate level was not further defined and did not have Year 12.

Excludes (both numerator and denominator):

• people who did not state if they had a non‑school qualification or whose level of education was inadequately described and did not have Year 12
• people who did not state their highest year of school and did not have a qualification at Certificate level III or above
• people whose highest year of school and non‑school qualification were ‘not stated’ or inadequately described
• overseas visitors
• people for whom Indigenous status was not stated. (Data on the number of people whose Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context).

Disaggregations:

Sex refers to a person’s biological characteristics. The 2021 Census allowed all respondents to select from three response options for the sex question: male, female and non‑binary sex. Where a respondent has provided a male or female response and a non‑binary sex response, the male or female response was used to determine a binary sex variable. Otherwise, sex was derived by a statistical process using random allocation.

Remoteness area is classified according to the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) using SA1 as the building block. For people with incomplete/invalid or missing address information, the ABS imputes the place of usual residence. The non‑response rate at the SA1 level was 4.4% in 2021. Remoteness area disaggregations exclude ‘Migratory – Offshore – Shipping’ and ‘No usual address’. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Socio‑economic status of the locality is classified according to the Socio‑economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD) using SA1 as the building block. For people with incomplete/invalid or missing address information, the ABS will impute the place of usual residence. That data is reported by IRSD quintile, which is determined at the Australian level and excludes persons with unknown or unavailable SEIFA score. Some individual geographic areas were excluded from SEIFA for various reasons, such as low population or high non‑response to certain Census questions. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Disability is classified according to core activity need for assistance. The data is only available for people with a profound or severe core activity limitation. Disability data sourced from the Census is based on four questions to identify need for assistance and may not be fully comparable with data from other sources. See www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4431.0.55.002 for more information. (Data for people whose ‘need for assistance with core activities’ was not stated is provided for context.)

Attainment categories is classified according to Highest Year of School Completed.

Extraction

Census Table Builder (Basic) – Employment, Income and Education: INGP X YR12C3P (or HSCP X QALLP) X AGE5P X Main ASGS (UR)

[Disaggregations: X SEX, X REMOTE (UR), X IRSD, X ASSNP, X HSCP].

All data values have been randomly adjusted using perturbation to avoid the release of confidential data. Proportions/rates calculated for small populations should be used with caution.