One in six kids on the margins, new report finds

One in six Australian kids are being socially and economically excluded due to poverty and other factors such as language or simply not having access to a family car, a new report finds

One in six Australian children are socially and economically excluded from mainstream society, a new study shows.

Almost 900,000 Australian children under 15, one in six, are being socially and economically isolated due to poverty and other factors such as a lack of English or not having access to a family car, a new study finds.

Tasmanian children are hit hardest, followed by those in South Australia and Queensland, the third Child Social Exclusion Index report says.

The study from Canberra University drills down into Census data across local areas, finding six of the 10 most socially excluded areas are in Queensland, including Logan, Wacol and Leichhardt.

Elizabeth and Smithfield in South Australia, and Ravenswood and Bridgewater in Tasmania were also in the top 10.

Previously produced by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, the third iteration of the report concludes the social exclusion of Australian children had worsened since it was first measured 20 years ago.

Child social exclusion is determined by more indicators than simply poverty, though it remains a major one.

Other factors include household educational attainment, health, the level of connectedness such as access to a family car or whether a family member can speak English, and community resources available including proximity to parks and public pools.

“The areas of greatest child poverty were found in southwest Sydney, south and west Melbourne, Hobart, and Perth; (while) areas of high child social exclusion risk were found in Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania,” the report said.

It found that 884,569 children under 15 years old, in 391 communities across the nation, are in the bottom 20 per cent of social exclusion.

In Tasmania, 35 per cent of children live in the nation’s most socially excluded quintile (20 per cent), followed by South Australia at 25 per cent, the report found. At the other end of the spectrum the ACT has just 3 per cent of children in the most socially excluded quintile.

The research, a collaboration with UnitingCare, did find an improvement over two decades in the proportion of children living in households where no one had completed year 12, and in those who were living in housing stress, though the census was taken at a time of higher Covid income support payments.

“Australia is raising a generation of children where one in six of them persistently feel excluded, are excluded, and they deserve better,” UnitingCare chief national director Claerwen Little said.

“Children are our future, and we must do better to make them financially and socially included in the fabric of Australia,” Ms Little said.

UnitingCare national director Claerwen Little. Picture: AAP

The report found just under 800,000 children in Australia were living in poverty – where their household income falls below half the median equivalised household disposable income of $504 a week in 2021.