A royal commission will put the spotlight on juvenile detention in the Northern Territory, after shocking videos revealed the abuse of inmates at Darwin's Don Dale Centre.

Data reveals there is a stark contrast between the NT's justice system and other states and territories.

Here are four things you should know about the state of the system.

1. The NT has by far the highest rate of detention of people aged 10 to 17

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare provides data on how many people are held in juvenile detention on an average night.

The NT's rate per capita is three times higher than any other state or territory.

2. Across Australia, Indigenous young people are 26 times more likely to be in detention

The same data shows that detention rates for young Indigenous people are much higher than non-Indigenous young people.

Just over half (54 per cent) of all young people in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2015 were Indigenous.

The institute doesn't break the Indigenous detention rate down for the Northern Territory — but in Western Australia Indigenous young people were held at a rate 35 times higher than the non-Indigenous population.

3. The NT imprisons more adults too

The high rate of youth detention in the Northern Territory is similar to the discrepancy seen in adult incarceration rates.

Roughly 1 per cent of the NT population is in prison, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

4. And Indigenous incarceration rates are much higher still

The NT has a high rate of Indigenous incarceration as well — almost 4 per cent of the territory's adult Indigenous population is behind bars.