ChatGPT (Oct. 28, 2025) Prompt: List countries with large indigenous populations that are seriously disadvantaged in terms of mortality, discrimination, suicide, alcoholism, poor health, unemployment. Quote statistics.

​

Good — below I’ve listed countries with large Indigenous populations where official data and NGO/research reports document serious disadvantage (mortality, suicide, substance-harm, poor health, unemployment, incarceration or violence). For each country I quote specific statistics and link the source so you can follow up. Definitions and data quality vary by country (census self-ID, legal categories, or NGO estimates), so I’ve cited authoritative national agencies and major reports where possible.

​

Australia — Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples

• Life expectancy gap: “In 2020–2022 life expectancy at birth was 71.9 years for First Nations males (versus 80.6 for non-Indigenous males) and 75.6 years for First Nations females (versus 83.8 for non-Indigenous females)” — a gap of ~8.8 years (males) and 8.1 years (females). Australian Bureau of Statistics+1

• Suicide: age-standardised suicide rate for First Nations people in 2023 was about 30.8 per 100,000 (roughly ≈3× the non-Indigenous rate); suicide among First Nations people has risen in recent years. AIHW+1

• Alcohol & other harms: First Nations people experience higher rates of alcohol-related harms and other substance harms compared with other Australians (documented by AIHW and national strategies). AIHW+1

​

Bolivia — Indigenous (Aymara, Quechua and many lowland groups)

• Child malnutrition & anaemia: Bolivia has very high childhood nutrition burdens; e.g., UNICEF/WFP and national briefs show high under-5 malnutrition and anaemia with marked rural/indigenous concentration (WFP reports national under-5 anaemia ~53.7% in country briefs and high levels of stunting in poor/indigenous areas). World Food Programme+1

• Poverty & food insecurity: Multiple agencies report large poverty rates concentrated among Indigenous rural households (for example WFP and country briefs document that substantial proportions of Indigenous households lack reliable food access). World Food Program USA+1

• Mental-health / suicide signals: Systematic reviews of Latin America and country literature indicate disproportionately high suicide rates and alcohol-related harms in some Indigenous/Andean communities in Bolivia (country mental-health reviews and regional studies highlight suicide as a leading cause of youth mortality in some areas). SpringerLink+1​

 

Brazil — many Indigenous groups (e.g., Yanomami and others)

• Acute humanitarian / health crises: In 2023 international and Brazilian reports documented a public-health emergency among the Yanomami — hundreds of deaths (including large numbers of child deaths) from malnutrition, infectious disease and related causes linked to illegal mining and lack of healthcare access; NGOs and news reporting documented hundreds of deaths and severe malnutrition among children. Reuters+1

• Violence & killings: Monitoring groups report significant violence — e.g., the Missionary Indigenous Council and Amnesty described hundreds of Indigenous murders and hundreds of violence incidents in recent years (2022–2023 period figures cited in their reports). Cimi+1

 

Canada — First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples

• Incarceration / criminal-justice over-representation: In 2020/2021, Indigenous people were incarcerated at much higher rates — on an average day there were 42.6 Indigenous people in provincial custody per 10,000 population vs 4.0 non-Indigenous per 10,000; the Over-Representation Index showed Indigenous incarceration rates about 8.9 times higher than non-Indigenous. Indigenous women were incarcerated at ~15.4 times the rate of non-Indigenous women (2020/21). Statistics Canada+1

• Life expectancy / mortality gaps: Multiple Statistics Canada analyses show Indigenous household populations (First Nations) with substantially lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous populations (historic gaps on the order of several years; official StatsCan pages and reports document continued gaps and higher infant mortality in some Indigenous populations). Statistics Canada+1

• Other socio-economic gaps: Federal analyses and Indigenous health bodies document persistent gaps in income, housing, and access to health services that drive worse health outcomes. Indigenous Services Canada+1​

 

Colombia — Indigenous peoples (e.g., Wayúu in La Guajira and many Amazon/Andean groups)

• Acute child malnutrition & deaths (La Guajira, Wayúu): In 2023 La Guajira recorded ~70 deaths of children under age five from acute malnutrition (La Guajira and neighbouring departments recorded dozens more) and local health reports identified 1,342 of 1,762 severe/moderate under-5 malnutrition cases reported in 2023 as coming from Indigenous communities. Humanitarian briefs and UNICEF reporting confirm that Indigenous Wayúu children are heavily over-represented among malnutrition cases and deaths. The Guardian+2ACAPS+2

• Food insecurity / humanitarian crisis: ACAPS, UNICEF and Human Rights Watch reporting describe ongoing, localized humanitarian crises in La Guajira where infrastructure, water scarcity and poverty drive very high malnutrition and child-mortality rates among Indigenous populations. ACAPS+1​

 

Ethiopia — Indigenous / pastoralist groups (Afar, Somali, other pastoralists)

• Severe malnutrition in pastoralist regions: National nutrition monitoring and recent reporting (Global Nutrition Report, regional news) document elevated acute malnutrition and food-security crises in pastoralist and arid regions (Afar, Somali) — for example recent reporting from Afar describes critical rises in severe acute malnutrition and large increases in malnutrition caseloads linked to drought, conflict and reduced humanitarian access. Global Nutrition Report+1

• Child mortality & malnutrition burden nationally concentrated in vulnerable groups: Ethiopia bore large absolute numbers of under-5 deaths attributable to malnutrition in recent years (e.g., analyses estimate that 57% of under-5 deaths in 2019 were attributable to malnutrition in national GBD/analysis) and pastoralist/remote Indigenous households show substantially worse nutrition and health access. PMC+1

 

Guatemala — (Maya and other Indigenous peoples)

• Poverty & malnutrition: Official/NGO compilations indicate ~75% of Indigenous people live in poverty (vs ~36% non-Indigenous) and chronic malnutrition affects ~58% of Indigenous children in some official studies — large and persistent gaps in child nutrition, health and living conditions. IWGIA+1​

 

New Zealand (Aotearoa) — Māori

• Suicide: Government and health reports show Māori experience ≈1.8× the suicide rate of non-Māori (data cited in New Zealand draft suicide-action material; Māori youth and young adults are especially affected). Ministry of Health NZ+1

• Life expectancy & health gaps: Official New Zealand health reporting shows Māori have lower life expectancy than non-Māori and higher rates of many chronic illnesses and social determinants that worsen mortality; recent reporting also shows gains for Māori but persistent gaps remain. (See Health & Independence Report and Stats NZ releases.) Ministry of Health NZ+1

​

Peru — Indigenous Amazonians & Andean peoples

• Child/maternal / preventable mortality: Peru’s overall preventable premature mortality rate was 153.7 per 100,000 (2019) — Indigenous and rural Amazon populations bear a disproportionate share of preventable deaths due to poor access to health services. Health in the Americas

• Environmental/health crises linked to extractive activity: Reporting and NGO investigations document toxic contamination and increased infectious disease, malnutrition and child health problems among Amazonian Indigenous groups where oil, gas and mining encroach on territories (including documented contamination of rivers and threats to food security). The Guardian+1

• Data gap / inequities caveat: National reviews (OECD 2025 health review) note progress in Peru’s population health but highlight persistent gaps in access and outcomes for remote Indigenous communities (Amazon and highlands). OECD​

 

Philippines — many Indigenous Cultural Communities / IPs across the archipelago

• Data gaps but clear disadvantage: The World Bank’s “No Data, No Story” (2024) review documents that data on Indigenous peoples in the Philippines are severely limited but the available evidence shows higher self-reported poverty (≈59% of IP respondents in the 2023 Indigenous Peoples Survey perceived themselves as poor) and gaps in access to services, land tenure insecurity and higher vulnerability to displacement and conflict. The World Bank Docs+1

• Localized extreme outcomes reported (suicide, high local suicide rates): Research reviews of Indigenous suicides across low-/middle-income countries have documented very high crude suicide rates in some Philippine Indigenous localities (e.g., reports of extremely high rates in parts of Palawan in past studies) — but national IP-disaggregated national statistics are sparse. The World Bank and UN emphasise urgent need for better IP-disaggregated data because official statistics under-capture many IP outcomes. ResearchGate+1

 

Russia — Arctic & small-numbered Indigenous peoples of the North (Chukotka, Sakha/Yakutia, Nenets, Sami and others)

• High alcoholism, accidental deaths and suicide: Reviews and WHO/UN reporting (and region-specific research) document very high rates of alcohol misuse, accidental-injury mortality and suicide among many small Indigenous groups in Russia’s Arctic and Far East; historic studies report average life-expectancies for some groups far below national averages and high male premature-death rates linked to alcohol and accidents. PMC+1

• Example findings (regional literature): Regional public-health overviews for Chukotka and neighbouring regions describe persistent poverty, high unemployment, elevated suicide and substance-use problems, and average life expectancies in some Indigenous localities that were notably lower than national Russian averages. (See Dudarev et al. & UN/WHO reviews.) Taylor & Francis Online+1

​

United States — American Indian & Alaska Native (AI/AN) peoples

• Suicide: Age-adjusted suicide rates are highest among non-Hispanic AI/AN persons — CDC reports ~28.1 per 100,000 (one of the highest of all racial/ethnic groups). CDC

• Alcohol-related deaths: CDC data show AI/AN adults have the highest alcohol-involved death rates (for example, 2019 rates reported in CDC briefs were ~50.5 per 100,000 in some analyses) and large increases in alcohol-related mortality in recent years. CDC+1

• Life expectancy / mortality: Analyses (and IHS/CDC data) document that AI/AN life expectancy lags the US average — studies estimate gaps that widened in recent years (multiple analyses report several-to-double-digit year differentials depending on method and year). The IHS and peer-reviewed work document persistent, substantial gaps. PubMed+1

 

Cross-cutting caveats (please read)

1. Definitions & data availability vary. “Indigenous” is measured differently across countries (self-ID, legal categories, ethnolinguistic classification, or using proxy groups such as “pastoralists” or “tribal” populations). That limits direct numeric comparability. United Nations

2. Local humanitarian crises vs national averages. In many countries severe harms are geographically concentrated (e.g., La Guajira in Colombia; Yanomami in Brazil; parts of the Peruvian Amazon), so national averages understate local Indigenous suffering. ACAPS+1

3. Reporting / recency. Some of the strongest, most recent numeric evidence comes from humanitarian/NGO reports (UNICEF, ACAPS, HRW, governmental health ministries) and academic reviews; national censuses and health systems often lack detailed Indigenous disaggregation — I cite both. open.unicef.org+1

​

​​

​