Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages are strong, supported and flourishing.

By 2031, there is a sustained increase in number and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages being spoken.

Number and age profile of the speakers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, including children.

There are two measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 Number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages spoken, by estimated number of speakers, by age group

Numerator – the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages spoken, by estimated number of speakers, by age group

and is presented as a number.

Measure 2 Number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who used an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language at home, by age group

Numerator – the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who used an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language at home, by age group

and is presented as a number.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

15 June 2023

Driver

Measure 1 and 2 - A high or increasing number (in total and across each language) is desirable.

Measure 1

Name: Third National Indigenous Languages Survey 2018-19 (NILS3)

Frequency: Periodic. National Indigenous Languages Survey are conducted at irregular intervals: NILS1 in 2004-05, NILS2 in 2014-15 and NILS3 in 2018-19.

Documentation (links): https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/current-projects/third-national-indigenous-languages-survey

Measure 2

Name: Census of Population and Housing

Frequency: Five‑yearly

Documentation (links): https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/language-statistics-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/2021#language-speakers

Measure 1

Provider name: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

Provider area: Languages

Measure 2

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Provider area: Census

Measure 1 2018-19

Measure 2 2016

Measure 1 2018-19

Measure 2 2021

Measure 1:

Australia, by estimated number of speakers, by age group.

Measure 2:

State and territory and Australia, by age group.

Australia, by top 10 languages, by age group.

Counting rules

Measure 1

Data is for the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages spoken. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages includes language varieties in the AustLang database.

Languages are coded according to the AustLang database of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language varieties. (AustLang is a thesaurus of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and peoples, maintained by AIATSIS.) The AustLang database has been assembled from a number of referenced sources. AustLang can be searched with language names, placenames and via the codes. AustLang has links to a number of online resources. AustLang includes many variant forms of language names.

For the number of language speakers, NILS respondents were provided a multiple‑choice list with ranges of numbers of speakers of each language group.

Measure 2

Data is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enumerated in the Census that reported having a usual residence in Australia. (For context, data is also provided on the number people who spoke an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language at home who were non‑Indigenous or their Indigenous status was not stated.)

Includes respondents who indicated that they used an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages at home. The Census asks, 'Does the person use a language other than English at home?'. Respondents can use a mark box to indicate the language they use at home or write the name of the language they use in a free text field. Responses to this question are coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are those classified as ‘Australian Indigenous Languages’ in the ASCL and include:

• ‘Traditional languages’ – languages spoken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people prior to colonisation, and the directly descended language varieties spoken today
• ‘New contact languages’ – languages that have formed since 1788 from language contact between speakers of traditional languages with speakers of English and/ or other languages
• ‘Aboriginal English’ and supplementary codes – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of speaking English which differ somewhat from Standard Australian English, but which Standard Australian English speakers can more or less understand.

Disaggregations (measure 2):

State and territory: Geographical variables are based on a person's place of usual residence.

The top 10 languages: are the top 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, nationally, reported in the 2021 Census. The top 10 languages exclude Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages with a ‘not further defined’ (nfd) or ‘not elsewhere classified’ (nec) ASCL code. These are supplementary codes in the ASCL and are not individually identified languages. Users of languages classified to nfd or nec codes are counted in the total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language users.

Measure 1

For the NILS, AIATSIS collected data from respondents who are thought to have sufficient knowledge of language communities in order to collect the data. These respondents include communities, language centres and other organisations carrying out language projects; and linguists who specialise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language.

There are several factors needed to be considered when interpreting the data:

• Each NILS has had slightly different objectives and therefore methodologies have differed. The methodology for future NILS may change, making it difficult to provide time series data.
• The term ‘languages’ usually refers to distinct systems of communication that are not mutually intelligible. Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages may be mutually intelligible but speakers prefer to describe them as different languages. For example, Western Desert Language includes Ngaayatjarra and Pitjantjatjarra, which are mutually intelligible, but speakers tend to refer to them as separate languages.
• There are complexities in arriving at precise numbers. NILS respondents self-report, and various respondents for an individual language variety may have differing interpretations of survey questions, or may be considering differing criterion or measures in their response.
• NILS data may be affected by poor geographical and demographic coverage due to an inability to reach remote and rural areas, and an undercounting of children.

Other limitations of the data gathered include:

• AIATSIS received responses for 141 language varieties. This means there are a number of language varieties with no data.
• AIATSIS did not receive a response for languages known to have many speakers. These languages include Anmatyerr, Burrara, Tiwi and Aboriginal English.
• In most cases, AIATSIS received one response per language variety. If there was more than one response, sometimes these answers conflicted. When this happened, the AIATSIS Languages team made an informed choice about which answers to accept.
• Some respondents counted only 'full' speakers. Other respondents counted all 'full', 'part' and 'little' speakers.
• NILS3 only reported on spoken languages. It did not report on signed languages. There are many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sign languages.

Measure 2

The ABS Post Enumeration Survey estimated that the 2021 Census had a net undercount of 170, 752 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (people that should have been counted in the Census but were not), or 17.4% of the Post Enumeration Survey population estimate.

In the 2021 Census, the Language Used at Home (LANP) question wording was amended to include the word 'use' rather than 'speak' to better accommodate members of the community who use sign language.

An enhancement to the online form presented a check box for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander language for those respondents who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in the Indigenous status question. To improve the data collected on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, the person also had the option of specifying the language.

Census data does not distinguish between languages used at home and heritage languages. The Census language question only allows for one language to be reported.

Census data does not distinguish between speaking a language fluently and speaking only a few words.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the non‑response rate for the LANP question was 5% in the 2021 Census.

All data values have been randomly adjusted using perturbation to avoid the release of confidential data. Discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Proportions/rates calculated for small populations should be used with caution.

A fourth NILS has been funded to be conducted by 2024.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• state and territory (measure 1)
• geographic area (remoteness where possible)
• gender
• strength of languages being supported (according to AIATSIS measures) including languages in the process of retrieval/revival.