Western Australia

WA is Australia’s largest State, taking up one third of the whole of the Australian land mass. WA is divided into nine regions:

• Gascoyne
• Goldfields-Esperance
• Great Southern
• Kimberley
• Mid West
• Peel
• Pilbara
• South West
• Wheatbelt.

Over three quarters of Western Australians live in the Perth metropolitan region, with around 5% in the Peel area [46763]. This is a similar distribution for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in WA with the majority living in the Perth, Peel and South-West region, followed by the Kimberley region.

Of all the people living in the Kimberley region, around 40% identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander [46764]. This is a much higher percentage than the Perth and Peel regions, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up less than 5% of the population.

In the 2021 Census, 3.3% (89,000 people) of the WA population identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people compared with 3.2% nationally [46764]. Of the 89,000 people who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in WA, 95.8% identify as Aboriginal, 1.8% as Torres Strait Islander, and 2.3% as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.