Northern Territory
Unlike other locations around the country, disadvantage in the Northern Territory is more dispersed. It was common for locations within the NT to experience both high and low rankings on different indicators.
However, it is still true that disadvantage is somewhat 
concentrated as illustrated by just 4 SLAs (25% of total) being responsible for almost half of all highest rank positions across 21 social indicators.
The diversity in the experience of disadvantage in the Norther Territory can be seen in the results below:
- In the Tiwi Islands, disadvantage is felt in the lack of internet access, low family incomes and young adults not engaged in work or study while social indicators such as criminal convictions and prison admissions were less prominent.
- In Katherine, disadvantage is reflected in the rankings for criminal convictions, domestic violence and prison admissions. On the other hand, skills appear to be at a higher level than in many other locations.
Locational disadvantage is entrenched
Since 2007, boundaries in the Northern Territory have changed and data collection has become more reliable making direct comparison difficult.
What we can see from the two reports however is that in 2007 two locations were noted for high levels of disadvantage: Darwin Region Balance and Barkley. While neither of these two regions still exist, they are likely to be picked up in the data for Belyuen and Central Desert respectively.
The table below shows that Belyuen and Central Desert remain in the ‘most’ or ‘next most’ disadvantaged band in 2015.
Most Disadvantaged SLAs in the Northern Territory
(Locations listed alphabetically within bands of disadvantage)
| Band | 2015 | Population (2011) |
|---|---|---|
| Most disadvantaged |
Belyuen East Arnhem Katherine Tiwi Islands |
181 9,098 17,823 2,580 |
| Next most disadvantaged |
Central Desert MacDonnell |
3,720 5,829 |