Report Card on the Wellbeing of Young Australians

UNICEF Australia partnered with the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) to develop a unique report card on the wellbeing of young Australians. The Report Card reveals that Australia lags behind many other developed nations in almost every indicator – presenting an important challenge for Governments.

The ARACY Report Card draws on the global UNICEF Report Card 7 ‘Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries’ produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in 2007.

The report comprises of three sets of data: indicators for Australia as a whole, for Indigenous Australia, and a comparison of results for the best international country.The indicators of the report card are based on eight areas:

1. Material wellbeing
2. Health and safety
3. Educational wellbeing
4. Relationships
5. Behaviours and risks
6. Subjective wellbeing
7. Participation
8. Environment           

The findings include:

• Australia ranks 20th out of 27 nations for infant mortality and Indigenous Australian babies have the lowest birth weight in the OECD.
• Teenage pregnancy rates are much higher than the OECD average, with Australia ranked 21st out of 30 countries. The rates for Indigenous young Australians are the highest in the OECD.
• Australia is weak in measures of family relationships, ranking 21st out of 27 nations in terms of children eating a meal with their parents, and 18th in parents spending time talking with their children.
• School achievement is relatively positive with Australia ranking in the top 20 per cent of OECD nations in reading, maths and science. School achievement for Indigenous young Australians is in the bottom 10 per cent with ratings better than only Mexico and Turkey.

The ARACY Report Card was developed with the support of UNICEF, the Allen Consulting Group and a reference group of 12 leading organisations. 
 

For further information:
Click here for the full report
Click here for the summary report
Click here for more information about ARACY