Australian Youth Profile

Youth Poll 2008 is the final iteration of an annual survey conducted by the Australian Democrats since 1992. For 16 years, Senator Stott Despoja has produced Youth Poll to give young people a say on a variety of issues including education, health and employment.

The annual survey aims to capture the perceptions of young people (15-20 years) about themselves, their place in society and the issues important to them. The survey is designed to produce a demographic and attitudinal profile of young Australians in relation to employment, health, education and training, and national and state issues.

• When asked to rank a list of nine issues according to their importance, respondents ranked family (84%), health (59%) and education (46%), as the most important issues, while least important were the environment (14%), other (7%) and reconciliation (3%).
  
• While environment was no longer one of the most significant concerns of young people, almost 75% of respondents supported the signing of the Kyoto Protocol.
  
• Health continues to be a major issue, with 54% of respondents concerned about ‘body image’.
  
• The importance of the internet in young people’s lives was measured for the first time in this year’s poll, and the poll found that nearly 75% of respondents belonged to a social networking site.

Australian Youth Profile

Also refer to ABS web site [viewed 23/1/2008].

Here is a snapshot of Australian youth (aged 12–24) today.

General
Population
Learning and work
Health
Crime & justice

General

Census of Population and Housing: Australia's Youth (ABS 2004) provides a snapshot of young people (15–24-year-olds) across a range of areas of social concern.

Using data from the 2001 Census, the publication explores issues such as: Indigenous and cultural background, ancestry, language proficiency, family relationships, participation in education and the labour force, income levels, and use of computers and the Internet. The publication includes an in-depth feature article exploring the mobility patterns of youth.

Key findings from the report include:

• 59% of Australian youth lived in the parental home, with young males being more likely than young females to be living in the parental home. The largest difference being in the 20–24 year age group with 45% of males at home compared to 34% of females
• Young people aged 20–24 years were more likely (60%) to have moved residence between 1996 and 2001, than 18–19-year-olds (46%)
• Youth participation in education increased between 1996 and 2001. The largest increase was in higher education, with participation increasing from 13% in 1996 to 17% in 2001
• Of all youth who reported their income, over half (53%) had a weekly income of less than $200 and 18% received $500 or more a week.

Also see Susan Pitman et al. 2003, Profile of young Australians: Facts, figures and issues, The Foundation for Young Australians, Melbourne, [viewed 23/1/2008].

Back to Top

Population

Number of young people living in Australia, 2004

• Number of young people living in Australia at June 2004:
• • young people aged 15–24: 2.8 million.
  • children aged 0–14: about 4 million
• The proportion of children in the population has been gradually declining as the population ages, but the number of children has been increasing slowly over the last decade. The number of children in 2026 is projected to be about 3.9 million, much the same as in 2004.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, media release: Australia's Welfare 2005 highlights [viewed 23/1/2008].

Back to Top

Learning and work

How young people are faring 2007: At a glance

Dusseldorp Skills annual report: How young people are faring provides an overview of the participation of young Australians in learning and work.

Participation in learning and work in 2007
Major points:

Teenagers: all 15–19-year-olds

• Close to 86% of teenagers are studying full-time or working full-time.
• 70% of teenagers are in full-time study: 52% were still at school and 18% were in tertiary studies, at university or TAFE. More females (75%) than males (65%) are in full-time study.
• 16% of teenagers are in full-time work. Nearly twice as many teenage males (21%) were working full-time compared to teenage females (11%).

School-leavers (all young people who left school 5-6 months previously)

• In 2006, 54% of school-leavers from the previous year continued on to study at university, TAFE or in other forms of education.
• Close to a quarter of school leavers went on to TAFE and close to 30% went on to university.
• Full time work and work-based training were important pathways for at least 80,000 school leavers.
• There is scope to improve the proportion of young people going on to further study or training, both formal and informal, after leaving school.

Young Adults (all 20-24-year-olds)

• Just over half of Australia's young adults are in full-time work and a quarter are in full-time education.
• Young women (28%) are more likely to be in full-time study than young men (25%), but young men (58%) are more likely to be in full-time work than young women (44%).
• Overall, more young men (84%) were in full-time learning or work than young women (71%).

Young people not fully engaged in learning or work

• In May 2007, 13.8% (196,000) teenagers were not in full-time learning or full-time work. Females were less likely to be fully engaged than males.
• The percentage of teenagers not in full-time study or full-time work has declined in recent years and in 2007 is the lowest since 1990. The gap in engagement between males and females has narrowed in recent years.
• Teenagers working part-time and not in full-time study increased from 4% in 1986 to 6.7% in 2007, while the proportion of teenagers that were unemployed has halved – from over 8% to 3.5% over the same period.
• A quarter (27%) of the 2006 school-leavers in May 2007 were not in full-time study or work (78,200 persons). Of these school-leavers, 15% were working part-time, 6% were unemployed and 6% were not in the labour force.
• The percentage of school leavers not in full-time study or full-time work has declined in recent years.
• In recent years the gap between males and females not in full-time study or full-time work has narrowed considerably.
• In May 2006, substantially fewer school leavers who had completed Year 12 (20%) were not fully engaged in study or work than students who left school after completing Year 11 (45%) or after completing Year 10 or earlier (50%). There were 46,000 early school leavers not fully engaged in learning or work. School completers are relatively advantaged in terms of education and labour force destinations.
• The proportion of school leavers not fully engaged is lower in Victoria and Western Australia compared to other states and territories.
• Participation rates in full-time learning or work in May 2007 were higher for young adults than at any time in the past two decades. However more than one in five young adults (22% or 330,000 people) were not in full-time study or full-time work.

Growth in full-time jobs

• Full-time jobs for Australians aged 25-64 years have risen by more than 1.270 million since 1995 but have been static for teenagers and declined by 42,000 for young adults. This gap in opportunity is not a result of fewer numbers of young people entering the labour market.

Percentage of 20–24-year-olds with at least year 12 or Certificate III, 2001–2006

• The proportion of young adults with at least these qualifications has risen from 76.7% in 2001 to 80.7% in 2006.

View/download PDF Document: How young people are faring 2007: At a glance [viewed 23/1/2008] 


Source: DSF - Dusseldorp Skills Forum
http://www.dsf.org.au

Back to Top

Health

Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007

This report is the third in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s series of statistical reports on the health and wellbeing of young Australians aged 12–24 years (the first and second reports were published in 1999 and 2003 respectively). Information in this report is largely organised according to the tiers and dimensions of the National Youth Information Framework (Tier 1: Health status and outcomes, Tier 2: Factors influencing health and wellbeing, Tier 3: Health system performance).

Click here to read the Australian Youth Facts and Stats summary of the report.

Click here to download the report in full.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2007, Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007, AIHW, Canberra [viewed 23/1/2008].

Back to Top

'Australia's health 2006'

Australia's health 2006, the tenth biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, looks at the health status of the Australian population and the factors that influence it, including health services and expenditure. This edition of the report also includes a special chapter on the health of Australia’s children and includes a section on young people aged 15–24 years.
Topics:

• Health status (self-rated) and disability
• Risk and protective factors: Nutrition and body weight, Alcohol, tobacco and other substance use, Physical activity, Sun protection, Teenage pregnancy.
• Health conditions: Mental health, Injury, Sexually transmitted infections, Long-term health conditions, Dental health.
• Mortality

To view the full report go to:
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10321
[viewed 23/1/2008].

Back to Top

Crime & justice

'Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2005'

Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2005 was released by the Australian Institute of Criminology in March 2006. Criminal justice data reported in Facts and Figures come from a variety of sources: administrative, such as criminal justice agency records and incident records kept by police, and surveys, such as the International Crime Victimisation Survey carried out in 2004. Statistics from the AIC as well as data holdings at the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other government agencies are used in the report, which provides a national picture of crime and justice throughout Australia for the period 1996 to 2004. These figures relate to all ages unless otherwise stated:

Overall:

• There has been a reduction in the number of almost all the major crimes recorded at a national level in Australia.
• The crimes of homicide, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft and other theft have been in decline over the past three years.
• Homicide rate per 100,000 persons:
• • 1.9 in 1996
    
  • At its highest in 1999, at 2.0.
  • 1.5 in 2004
• Robbery rate per 100,000 persons:
• • 137 in 2001 (the highest recorded since 1996).
  • Since 2001 has declined by 40%, to 82 per 100,000 in 2004.
• Motor Vehicle theft declined by 35% between 1996 and 2004:
• • From 671 to 437 per 100,000 population.
  • In 2004 there were 87,916 recorded victims of motor vehicle theft.
• Based on the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program, between 1999 and 2004: The percentage of police detainees testing positive to any drug or to cannabis has remained steady.
• • Heroin use decreased markedly between 2000 and 2001 and has remained at this lower level.
  • Methylamphetamine use increased until 2001 and has since levelled off.
• From 1999-2000 to 2003-2004, there has been a decline in the total number of alleged offenders, but the majority continue to be male and aged between 15 and 19 years of age.
• Between 1984 and 2004, the overall imprisonment rate increased from 88 to 158 per 100,000 adult population. The overall incarceration rate for juveniles declined 60%: from 65 to 26 per 100,000 between 1981 and 2004.

The full report can be found at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2005/
[viewed 23/1/2008].

Source:
The Australian Institute of Criminology, Australian Crime: Facts & Figures 2005, media release [viewed 23/1/2008].

Back to Top