Closing the Gap

Children are born healthy and strong

2
Children are born healthy and strong

Outcome

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong.

Target

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91 per cent.

Summary on Target

Target: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91 per cent.
Domain: Health and wellbeing
Outcome: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong.
Numerator: Number of Indigenous babies who weighed between 2,500 and 4,499 grams at birth.
Denominator: Number of Indigenous babies born
Computation: 100 x (numerator ÷ denominator):
  • Data relate to live births.
  • Data excludes multiple births, stillbirths and births of less than 20 weeks gestation. Births both less than 20 weeks gestation and less than 400 grams birthweight are not included in the National Perinatal Data Collection.
  • Data are by place of usual residence of the mother. Data exclude Australian non-residents, residents of external territories and records where state/territory of residence was not stated.
Data source: AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC)
Notes:
  • Target measure is based on Indigenous status of the baby.
  • Indigenous status of the mother has been a mandatory data item for the Perinatal National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) since its inception in 1997.
  • Indigenous status of the baby is relatively new – it was added to the NMDS for collection from 1 July 2012.
  • Of the 16,934 babies reported as Indigenous in 2017 (5.5% of all babies), almost one-quarter (24%) were born to non-Indigenous mothers.

Prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Baseline data

Baseline data for the target measure is presented below at a national level, and for each state and territory where available. This will show starting points for each target, by jurisdiction.

Table 2.1: Healthy birthweight, singleton liveborn births, Australia, 2013–2017(a)(b)(c)

Number
Indigenous status of the baby Year Low birthweight
<2,500g)		 Healthy birthweight
(2,500-4,499g)		 High birthweight
(4,500g and over)		 Not stated Total
Indigenous 2013 1,524 13,819 233 2 15,578
2014 1,535 14,277 234 3 16,049
2015   1,545 14,400 233 6 16,184
2016 1,519 14,146 218 4 15,887
2017 1,613 14,481 204 5 16,303
Non-Indigenous 2013 12,767 263,893 4,542 125 281,327
2014 13,151 266,390 4,327 104 283,972
2015 13,221 262,685 4,015 69 279,990
2016 13,528 266,746 3,705 101 284,080
2017 13,311 257,934 3,394 72 274,711
Not stated 2013 42 539 13 2 596
2014 43 426 14 7 490
2015 85 695 12 4 796
2016 254 2,493 32 3 2,782
2017 290 2,162 37 2 2,491
Total 2013 14,333 278,251 4,788 129 297,501
2014 14,729 281,093 4,575 114 300,511
2015 14,851 277,780 4,260 79 296,970
2016 15,301 283,385 3,955 108 302,749
2017 15,214 274,577 3,635 79 293,505
Per cent
Indigenous status of the baby Year Low birthweight
<2,500g)		 Healthy birthweight
(2,500-4,499g)		 High birthweight
(4,500g and over)		 Not stated Total
Indigenous 2013 9.8 88.7 1.5 0.0 100.0
2014 9.6 89.0 1.5 0.0 100.0
2015 9.5 89.0 1.4 0.0 100.0
2016 9.6 89.0 1.4 0.0 100.0
2017 9.9 88.8 1.3 0.0 100.0
Non-Indigenous 2013 4.5 93.8 1.6 0.0 100.0
2014 4.6 93.8 1.5 0.0 100.0
2015 4.7 93.8 1.4 0.0 100.0
2016 4.8 93.9 1.3 0.0 100.0
2017 4.8 93.9 1.2 0.0 100.0
Not stated 2013 7.0 90.4 2.2 0.3 100.0
2014 8.8 86.9 2.9 1.4 100.0
2015 10.7 87.3 1.5 0.5 100.0
2016 9.1 89.6 1.2 0.1 100.0
2017 11.6 86.8 1.5 0.1 100.0
Total 2013 4.8 93.5 1.6 0.0 100.0
2014 4.9 93.5 1.5 0.0 100.0
2015 5.0 93.5 1.4 0.0 100.0
2016 5.1 93.6 1.3 0.0 100.0
2017 5.2 93.6 1.2 0.0 100.0

Prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). 

AIHW analysis of the National Perinatal Data Collection.

Notes

  1. Data relate to live births. Data excludes multiple births, stillbirths and births of less than 20 weeks gestation. Births both less than 20 weeks gestation and less than 400 grams birthweight are not included in the National Perinatal Data Collection.
  2. Data are by place of usual residence of the mother. Data excludes Australian non-residents, residents of external territories and records where state/territory of residence was not stated.
  3. State and territory data is available for download below.

Download

National Target Trajectory

The national target trajectories presented below reflect the possible rate of progress over the next decade to achieve the target. In practice, the rate of progress is unlikely to be the same from year to year.

The target trajectory can be compared with the two related trajectories: the projected rates of progress for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians based on the assumption the historic rate of change will continue into the future.

Prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Source

AIHW analysis of the AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection.

Summary Table On Trajectory Chart

Line label Line Method/assumptions Annual change (percentage points) 2031 rate (%)
Historical trend: Non-Indigenous rate Dark red solid
Line dark red solid		 Based on percentage of non-Indigenous babies with a healthy birthweight, 5 data points (2013 to 2017). 0.03 . .
Continuation of historical trend: non-Indigenous Dark red dashed
Line dark red dashed		 The annual rate of change in the birthweight of babies born to non-Indigenous mothers over the longer period 2000 to 2016 was determined using linear regression(a). More data points were available for babies of non-Indigenous mothers than for non-Indigenous babies, so the former provide a better indication of trends.
The annual rate of change observed in data for babies of non-Indigenous mothers was then applied to data on birthweight of non-Indigenous babies.		 0.02
 		 94.2
Historical trend: Indigenous rate Pink solid
Line pink solid		 Based on percentage of Indigenous babies with a healthy birthweight, 5 data points (2013 to 2017). 0.03 . .
Continuation of historical trend: Indigenous Pink dashed
Line pink dashed		 The annual rate of change observed in the birthweight of babies born to Indigenous mothers over the longer period 2000 to 2016 was determined using linear regression(a). More data points were available for babies of Indigenous mothers than for Indigenous babies, so the former provide a better indication of trends.
The annual rate of change observed was then applied to data on birthweight of Indigenous babies.		 0.11 90.4
Target trajectory Cyan dashed
Line cyan dashed		 Straight line projection from 2016 value to the target rate in 2031. 0.16 91.0

n/a = not applicable.

  1. Based on a linear regression of historical data. As such, the projection captures drivers of historical growth rates such as population growth or government funding. However, doing projections in this manner assumes that the drivers of growth will not vary greatly into the future.

Prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

Source

AIHW analysis of the AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection.