The rate of disability in the Indigenous population is substantially higher than the rate for the Australian population as a whole. Despite the relatively high rates of disability experienced by the Indigenous population there has been surprisingly little research in this area to date.

This paper addresses some of this knowledge gap by providing an overview of the extent of disability in the Indigenous population. We document the geographic and demographic distribution of Indigenous Australians who report a profound or severe disability and compare this to data for the non-Indigenous population. The paper is based upon data from the 2006 and 2011 Censuses of Population and Housing.