Measuring indigenous populations across nations: Challenges for methodological alignment

Abstract

The social and political importance of the world's Indigenous peoples is highlighted by the United Nations and by a range of National Statistical Organisations and government agencies internationally who aim to identify and address some of the distinct social and economic characteristics observed in Indigenous populations. This paper outlines the historical and social context around enumeration and measurement of Indigenous peoples in Australia and offers an outline of current operational approaches across administrative and survey data. It also gives a comparative account of approaches taken by the United States of America, Canada and New Zealand, discussing historical contexts, their notions of Indigeneity and the collection methodology employed. Considerations are then offered toward the development of an internationally consistent approach to the measurement of Indigenous peoples. While Indigenous data is collected and compared across nations, collection methodologies differ, making comparisons less reliable and giving rise to the consideration for a standard international recording methodology. This preliminary review of current approaches and the documentation of known collection issues are of value in encouraging a wider strategic discussion around approaches to Indigenous statistics amongst nations.