Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and households are safe.

By 2031, the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children is reduced at least by 50% as progress towards zero.

Rates of hospitalisation for family violence assaults for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children; by relationship to perpetrator.

There are three measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is the rate of hospitalisations for family violence assaults for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people aged 15 or over, by sex

Numerator – number of hospitalisations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over for assault, where the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim is a partner, parent or other family member, by sex

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over in the population, by sex

and is presented as a rate per 100,000 people.

Measure 2 is the rate of hospitalisations for family violence assaults for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people aged 15 and above, by sex, by relationship of the perpetrator to the victim

Numerator – number of hospitalisations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over for assault, where the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim is a partner, parent or other family member, by sex, by relationship of the perpetrator to the victim (‘partner’ and ‘parent or other family member’)

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over in the population, by sex

and is presented as a rate per 100,000 people

Measure 3 is the rate of hospitalisations for family violence assaults for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people aged under 15

Numerator – number of hospitalisations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged under 15 for assault, where the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim is a partner, parent or other family member

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged under 15 in the population

and is presented as a rate per 100,000 people.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

12 March 2025

Driver

A low or decreasing rate of family violence related hospitalisations is desirable. However, an increase in the rate may indicate that more victims/survivors have the support to seek treatment and report a perpetrator. See the data quality considerations for more information.

Name (numerator): National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Frequency: Annual

Name (denominator): Estimates and Projections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population

Frequency: Annual (updated data for all years included in the March 2025 Dashboard update)

Documentation (links): https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/national-hospitals-data-collection

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-and-projections-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians

Provider name (numerator): Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Provider area: Hospitals data

Provider name (denominator): Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Provider area: Demography

2018-19 (updated in March 2025)

2022-23 (updated in March 2025)

Measure 1

State and territory and Australia, by sex, by Indigenous status.

Measure 2

State and territory and Australia, by sex, by Indigenous status, by relationship of perpetrator to the victim (‘partner’ and ‘parent or other family member’).

Measure 3

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

Numerator divided by denominator multiplied by 100,000

Rates per 100,000 shown for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples only. National age-standardised rates are provided for measures 1 and 2 to allow for comparisons between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non‑Indigenous people. Age standardised rates are calculated using the direct method of age standardisation. For this indicator, the age groups used are 15–24 years, 5-year age groups (25–59 years) and ages 60 years or over. See the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rate: calculated based on estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population based on medium series projections. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is calculated for December (of the reference period) based on the average of two ABS June estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population data is 2021 Census-based (using the ABS medium projection series).

Non-Indigenous rate: calculated based on estimates of the non‑Indigenous population derived as the difference between the total estimated resident population and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population projections (December of the reference period).

Counting rules

All measures

Where requested by jurisdictions, counts less than five have been supressed by the AIHW and appear as ‘np’.

Hospitalisations for family violence-related assaults are based on the ICD-10-AM 10th and 11th editions (Australian Consortium for Classification Development), including:

• A principal diagnosis ICD-10-AM code between S00 - T75, or T79
• the first reported external cause as ‘Assault’ ICD-10-AM codes X85–Y09, where the principal diagnosis was ‘Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes’ (S00–T98)
• Where the first recorded external cause is Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (U90.0) or a supplementary factor related to causes classified elsewhere (Y90 - Y98), then the next recorded external cause is used instead
• ICD-10-AM 10th edition was used for the 2018-19 reporting year
• ICD-10-AM 11th edition was used for the 2019-20 to 2022-23 reporting years.
• Family violence related assaults include assaults by a spouse/domestic partner, parent or other family member.
• Relationship of perpetrator to the victim is coded in the fifth digit of ICD-10-AM codes for ‘Assault’ X85–Y09 as: spouse/domestic partner (0); parent (1); or other family member (2).

For more information about the scope related to family violence related injury, see Injury in Australia, Technical notes - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (aihw.gov.au).

To minimise double-counting hospitalisations for injuries, the data excludes:

• admissions that are transfers from another hospital
• admissions with rehabilitation procedures and care type is not acute
• records where the admission mode is statistical admission and care type is not acute.

Hospitalisations for family violence assaults excludes:

• records where the external cause of injury is Complications of medical and surgical care (Y40-Y84), Sequelae of external causes of morbidity and mortality (Y85–Y89), or contact with allergens, except contact with animals (Y37.0-Y37.5 and Y37.7-Y37.9)
• hospitalisations for Newborns without qualified days, Hospital boarders and Posthumous organ procurement are also excluded.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population rates reported for this indicator have been revised down compared to previous reporting on the dashboard. This follows from the release of 2021 Census-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population data. Please refer to the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Comparisons of population rates should be used with caution. Increasing hospitalisation rates may reflect improving identification within hospitalisation administrative data, rather than changes in underlying injury rates. Please refer to the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Not all people who have injuries or conditions as a result of family violence will seek hospital treatment, and of those that do, not all will disclose the cause (for example, assault) and/or the relationship to the perpetrator.

Interpretation of changes over time should take into account changes in the proportion of all hospitalisations for assault among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where perpetrator information was specified, which has increased from 66.9% in 2018-19 to 69.1% in 2022-23.

State or territory refers to the place of usual residence of the patient. The data for Australia includes hospitalisations where usual residence of patient is ‘other territories’ or is unknown.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• remoteness areas and other small geographic areas (where available)
• disability status
• age.