Australia Unveils New Insights on Childhood Disadvantage

The ABS published new insights on childhood disadvantage today as part of the Life Course Data Initiative (LCDI).

Steven Nicholas, ABS head of the Life Course Data Initiative, said: 'The LCDI combines data from early childhood, health, education and community services to give communities and policy makers a clearer picture of disadvantage.

'Insights published today help us understand how far Australians travel to access critical services, and provide insights into where childhood disadvantage is most concentrated within our communities.

'As part of the LCDI, the ABS' Community Data Liaison Officers are helping communities to use data to strengthen local decision making.'

The Service Accessibility Explorer is an interactive map and dashboard showing how far people needed to travel to reach the closest key services like childcare, schools, hospitals and GPs in 2021.

Today's update also includes an article on children's distance to services.

'This analysis showed that nearly 80 per cent of children aged 5-12 years lived in areas where the median distance by road to a primary school was less than 2 km,' Mr Nicholas said.

Today's LCDI release includes new insights about household and area level disadvantage in 2021. This measures relative advantage and disadvantage by combining data on housing, family, education, occupation and income.

'The analysis showed that 42 per cent of the most disadvantaged households were living in the most disadvantaged areas,' Mr Nicholas said.

'However, we also found that 13 per cent of the most disadvantaged households were living in the most advantaged areas.