The number of Aboriginal Australians living in NSW and Victoria has doubled since 2001, figures released by the Bureau of Statistics show, far outpacing the growth in the non-Indigenous population of both states.
In NSW, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders has increased from 120,000 in 2001 to 216,000 in 2016 while in Victoria the numbers have almost doubled from 25,000 to 47,000.
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Census 2016: if Australia were 100 people
The latest census data has been collected and analysed. Here's a snapshot of Australia shown as a group of 100 people.
"The Indigenous population is growing - rapidly," Australian National University associate professor Nicholas Biddle and research fellow Francis Markham will tell ANU's Centre for Economic Policy Research on Friday.
Over the same period the non-indigenous population has grown by between 15 and 20 per cent in NSW and Victoria.
"Apart from the higher fertility rate of Indigenous Australians there is pretty strong evidence for there being a larger number of people who previously weren't being counted," said Dr Biddle.
"Part of it is the census getting better at counting the population, and part of it is people being more comfortable identifying themselves to a census collector."
Nationally, there are now 650,000 Indigenous Australians, according to the updated 2016 Census figures released by the bureau on Thursday, which also show the suburbs with the highest and lowest proportion of Aboriginal residents.
In NSW, the lower North-Shore has just 0.2 per cent of residents identifying as Aboriginal compared to the state average of 1.4 per cent. In Sydney's east, at 6.6 per cent, La Perouse has the highest rate among Indigenous areas identified in the Sydney city region.
In Victoria, the Melbourne areas of Bayside and Glen Eira have the lowest proportion of Aboriginal residents at 0.2 per cent. The Mornington Peninsula has the Melbourne area's highest at 1.3 per cent.
While more Aboriginal Australians are moving to urban areas, the majority are staying on city fringes. There are now more than 9000 Indigenous Australians in Blacktown in Sydney's west and more than 2800 located across Northcote, Preston and Whittlesea in Melbourne.
Dr Biddle said these areas also have high rates of mixed parentage, where Indigenous males and females have a non-indigenous partner causing the rate of the population that identifies as Aboriginal to increase.
"That is kind of what you expect if you have a population that makes up 1 or 2 per cent. The chances of your partner having the same ethnicity as you is relatively low."
The number of people identifying as Indigenous has significant implications for government policy. The Commonwealth Grants Commission allocates a small share of more than $50 billion in GST revenue to states for Indigenous funding on the basis of the census figures.
Nikita Rotumah and Ben Clark work at one of the few remaining Aboriginal youth outreach centre in the Melbourne city area.
"All the services are under resourced," said their manager Troy Austin, who has run the Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation Co-Operative in Fitzroy for the past three years.
"A lot of the organisations have moved out of the inner city as the community goes out to where housing is more affordable."
He said while more and more people are identifying as Indigenous that has not translated to greater resources.
"People are becoming more aware of the number of services that you have to have your Aboriginality confirmation for," he said. "Maybe someone who wasn't getting services before can now get them."
"There was a period where it was safer for someone to not poke your head up and say you were Aboriginal, now there is a lot more pride and also a lot more awareness," he said. "That's a good thing."