Facts and Figures

• About 70% of young Australians were in either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ health, while a further 24% rated their health as ‘good’. Only 7% reported their health to be either ‘fair or poor’. By contrast, the proportion of Indigenous young Australians rating their health as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ was only 59%; and similarly they were more likely, at 9%, to rate their health as ‘fair or poor’.

• About 251,300 young Australians (9%) were living with a disability in 2003. Of the young people with a disability, 24.2% experienced profound or severe core activity limitations, amounting to almost 1 in 40 among young Australians overall.

• Based on self-reported height and weight, 19% of young Australians (22% of males, 15% of females) were overweight but not obese, and 6% (5% males, 6% females) were obese in 2004-05.

• In 2004 about 22% of young people were current smokers, and 71% had never smoked.

• In 2004, 39% of both male and female young Australians had consumed alcohol at levels considered risky or high risk in the short term; that is, seven or more standard drinks in any one day within a month.

• One in six Australians (15.3%) overall had used an illicit drug in the preceding 12 months but this included almost three in 10 young Australians – 31% of the males and 26% of the females. The illicit drugs most commonly used by young people in the preceding 12 months were marijuana/cannabis (24% had used it), ecstasy (9%) and meth/amphetamines (8%).

• In 2004, over 50% of young people surveyed said that they had participated in physical activity three or more times a week in the preceding year, while 8% had engaged in no physical activity. The types of activities included aerobics/fitness (24.8% undertaking it), walk-ing (22.7%) and swimming (19.4%).

• In 2004, 4.3% of all births (10,857) in Australia were to females aged less than 20 years and a further 14.2% (36,146) were to those aged 20-24 years. These proportions have declined since 1994, when 5.0% of births were to females aged less than 20 years, and 19.1% to those aged 20-24 years.

• Almost one in eight young people (13%) aged 15-17 years had a mental health ‘problem’ according to a national survey conducted in 1998. The survey also found that nearly one in 10 young people (9.8%) of that age had a mental health ‘disorder’ such as ADHD, conduct disorder or depression.

• The prevalence of a mental health disorder among those aged 18-24 years was 27% in 1997. The most prevalent disorders in this age group were substance use disorders (one in six were affected), followed by anxiety disorders (one in nine).

• Injuries are common in young Australians and are the leading cause of their hospitalisations and death; for young males, injuries accounted for 26% of hospitalisations in 2003-04. Transport accidents and intentional self-harm are the most common causes of death among young people.

• The most commonly notified sexually transmitted infection among young people is chlamydia, with 21,527 notifications in 2004. The highest rates of chlamydia, gonococcal and syphilis infections were in the 20-24 years age group.

• There were 1,350 deaths of young Australians in 2004, nearly 70% being of males. The death rate for young males declined by 46% over a recent 20-year period, from 121.4 deaths per 100,000 in 1984 to 65.9 in 2004; the rate for young females declined by 30%, from 43.7 per 100,000 to 30.4.

• Although young Indigenous people comprise only about 3% of their age group, Indigenous deaths among young males accounted for 11.8% of the total in 2000-2004, for Indigenous females the figure was 12.4%. Con-sidering both Indigenous and non-Indigenous young Australians combined, the mortality rate in remote and very remote areas was 3-4 times that in major cities.

• The age-standardised drug dependency death rate for young Australians dropped by 97% between 2000 and 2004, with the decline being largely due to a fall in heroin-related deaths that coincided with a period of reduced heroin supply in Australia.

• The findings of a recent Australian study found that over 80% of young people said they were satisfied with their lives – including lifestyle, work or study, relationships with parents and friends, accomplishments and self-perceptions – but that 50% were experiencing one or more problems associated with depression, anxiety, anti-social behaviour and alcohol use.

• About one in four Year 10 students and half of all Year 12 students have had vaginal intercourse. Of the young people who had ever had sex, about half of the males and 61% of the females had at least one sexual partner in the last year.

• Most teenagers aren’t practising safe sex: one in four teenagers have had sexual intercourse without using a condom; only 40% of Year 12 students always use condoms; of Year 12 students, males are more likely to report using condoms (52.2%) than females (34%); one in four teenagers report they were either drunk or high during their most recent sexual encounter; about 28% of Australian teenagers may be infected with chlamydia.

• Over one in four teenagers had experienced an un-wanted sexual encounter.

• In 2003, an estimated 84,218 abortions were performed, with women aged 0-19 representing 13,855 (16.5%) of this total number.

• 15% of adolescents suffer from recognisable mental health problems; 5% of adolescents experience serious psychological disorders; 1% of adolescents have severe mental health problems.