Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students reach their full potential through further education pathways.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate level III and above) to 70 per cent.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years old who have completed qualifications at Certificate level III or above.

The measure is defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years old who have completed non-school qualifications at Certificate level III or above based on the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

Denominator — total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the population aged 25-34 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. An increase from the previous year or the baseline year is an improvement.

Name: ABS Census of Population and Housing

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 areas

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintile

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

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by highest qualification achieved.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100

Counting rules

Data are 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 Certificate Level III or IV, Diploma or Advanced Diploma, Bachelor Degree, Graduate Diploma/Certificate or a Postgraduate Degree.

Includes (numerator and denominator)

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

Excludes (both numerator and denominator)

• people whose non-school qualifications were recorded as ‘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 per cent 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.

Socioeconomic status of the locality is classified according to the ABS 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. Data are reported by IRSD quintile that are determined at the Australian level and exclude 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. Data are only available for people with a profound or severe core activity limitation. Disability data sourced from the Census are 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.)

Highest qualification achieved describes the level of a person’s highest completed non-school qualification and is categorised according to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

Extraction

Census Table Builder (Basic) – Employment, Income and Education: INGP X AGEP X HEAP (QALLP X HSCP prior to 2016) X Main ASGS (UR)

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

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.