7,8 It is evident that the largest numbers live in New South Wales and Queensland, both of which have approximately 80,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Figure 1 shows the numbers of women living in each of the thirty-six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council regions.
Smaller populations are resident in other regions.
The 1995 ABS 6 recorded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population as 1,775. Strait Islander Peoples,1997. The major risk factors for breast cancer established in non-Aboriginal populations are increasing age and family history. There have been no studies exploring risk factors for the development of breast cancer among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. As shown in Figure 2, the age structure of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female population is quite different to that of the non-Aboriginal female population in Australia.