HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILIES
Obligation and connection to family plays an important role in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. This support can be in the form of sharing accommodation.
Households in which an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander lived were more likely than other households in 2016 to be family households (80% compared with 71%). They were less likely to be a person living alone (15% compared with 25%).
In 2016 it was also more common for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households to have more than one family living together (5.1%) than for other households (1.8%).
(a) Includes households in occupied private dwellings only. Excludes visitor only and other non-classifiable households.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2016
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households, on average, were larger than non-Indigenous households (3.2 people, compared with an average of 2.6 people for other households).
LANGUAGE
One in 10 (10%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people reported speaking an Australian Indigenous language at home in the 2016 Census. Of the 63,800 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who spoke an Indigenous language at home, 85% reported speaking English well or very well.
Of the 150 Australian Indigenous languages spoken at home in 2016, the five most widely reported language groups spoken at home were: