Target 11

Measures

• Rate (per 10,000) of First Nations Australian young people (10–17 years) in detention, by sex, age group and over time.


• Rate (per 10,000) of non-Indigenous Australian young people (10–17 years) in detention, over time.

Available by

• Sex: males, females, persons.


• Age group: 10–13 years, 14–17 years.


• Remoteness Area (AUS only): Major Cities, Inner and Outer regional, Remote and Very remote.

Data periods

• AUS and STE (excluding data by age group and sex): 2023–24


• IREG and SA4: 2023–24


• AUS and STE data by age group and sex: 2023–24


• Time trend data: 7-year period (2017–18 to 2023–24) for SA4 and IREG; 8-year period (2016–17 to 2023–24) for AUS and STE.

Data sources

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Youth Justice National Minimum Dataset (YJ NMDS).

Region types

• Main structures: Australia, States and Territories, Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4).


• Indigenous structure: Indigenous Regions (IREG).

Suppression

Data have been suppressed for the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania where the count is fewer than 5; this applies to both the number and the rate.

Notes

• Number of young people on an average day may not sum to totals published in Youth Justice in Australia due to rounding.


• Rate numerator based on average daily number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10–17 years in supervised youth detention. Average daily numbers are calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends under supervision during the year (irrespective of age) and dividing this total by the number of days in the same year.


• Data includes unsentenced (remanded in custody) and sentenced detention, under the supervision of youth justice agencies.


• Age on an average day is calculated based on the age a young person is each day that they are under supervision. If a young person changes age during a period of supervision, the average daily number under supervision will reflect this. Average daily data broken down by age will not be comparable with data in Youth justice in Australia releases before 2019–20.


• For data by Remoteness Area, some young people excluded due to missing or invalid postcodes or because the postcode was not listed in the Remoteness areas correspondence file. Some remoteness areas are not found in all states and territories.


• For data by SA4, or by IREG, young people were excluded where their last known address was outside the jurisdiction that they received youth justice supervision.


• For data by SA4, some young people excluded due to missing or invalid postcodes or because the postcode was not listed in the SA4 correspondence file.


• For data by IREG, some young people excluded due to missing or invalid postcodes or because the postcode was not listed in the IREG correspondence file.


• Caution should be taken when making comparisons between geographical areas, due to differences in population size and demographics between areas.


• The proportion of missing postcode varies between jurisdictions and financial year. For the detention file, the national rate of missing postcode was 1.8% for 2023–24. In some jurisdictions, the rate of missing postcode data is higher than the national rate; in 2023-24, this was the case for the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia (ranging from 11.2% in the ACT to 1.9% in South Australia).


• The numerator is calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends in detention during the financial year and dividing this total by the number of days in the financial year reporting period. Number of young people on an average day may not sum to total due to rounding.


• Rates are calculated from unrounded numbers of young people on an average day.


• The relevant population is calculated for December (of the reference period) based on the average of two ABS June estimates of the ERP (based on the ABS Series B projections).