The Repeat Offenders Database (ROD), which has been collated by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, offer a unique opportunity to analyse data quality issues for an important source of administrative data for Indigenous people. This seminar provides several independent estimates of the population of Indigenous offenders by estimating the number of people with unknown Indigenous status who are likely to be identified as Indigenous in other circumstances.

Analysts of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census data have commonly observed that the census enumeration in remote Indigenous regions of Australia underestimates the actual number of Indigenous people. Such underestimations of remote population groups have dire consequences not only for appropriate service delivery in such extreme regions, but also contribute to a misguided public perception that the population in remote Indigenous regions is declining. Clearly a better approach to undertaking census counts is needed in remote Australia.

The new Federal Government has identified as one of its priorities a 'closing of the gaps' in social and economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with specific reference made to health/life expectancy, education participation and attainment, housing and employment. Previous CAEPR research has shown that the structural circumstances facing Indigenous populations are increasingly diverse and locationally dispersed and that this leads to variable constraints and opportunities for social and economic participation.

Population counts represent the key output from each national census as they establish the base from which population estimates are subsequently derived and the levels at which population characteristics are established. Such information is vital in assessing change over time in social indicators and plays a key role in the assessment of policy impacts. A notable feature of successive Indigenous census counts has been their volatility and unpredictability with numbers invariably greater each time than change due to natural increase alone would suggest.