Pay of Aborigines Half That of Whites, Australia Reports

Aborigines, the country’s original inhabitants, die 20 years earlier than whites, earn half as much and are five times more likely to die in infancy, the government said Thursday.

Figures released by the Aboriginal Affairs Department also show that aborigines who survive infancy are less likely to complete formal education, less likely to live in their own homes, four times more likely to be unemployed and 11 times more likely to be jailed than other Australians.

The figures plotted the decline of the aboriginal population from 314,000 when European settlers began arriving in the late 1700s, to 70,000 by the early 1930s. In 1981 aborigines numbered 160,000 in a total population of 15 million.