Transformations of the Indigenous population: recent and future trends

Abstract

By the 1970s, the Indigenous population had undergone a series of systematic fluctuations in fertility and mortality levels, uneven over space and time, but ultimately comprehensive and uniform in effect. Current interest is on progress in the prevailing demographic regime of declining natural growth rates based on reductions in both fertility and mortality, with recent trends suggesting that this process may be stalled. Also of interest is the emergence of additional contributors to Indigenous population growth. These include Indigenous births to non-Indigenous women as well as an increased propensity for individuals to declare Indigenous status on census forms. In the more distant past, sociological and political processes have effectively excluded or devalued Indigenous representation in official statistics. In the more recent politics of data collection, efforts are made to encourage identification. Show more