Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre: Child Poverty in Australia 2024 report

Researchers warn that Australia’s poverty rate is expected to rise even further in 2024. #

​The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Child Poverty in Australia 2024 report has just been released.

The report compared the life outcomes of young people who grew up in poverty, exposing the scarring effect on life outcomes.
Following their paths through life over 22 years, the data shows:

• Child poverty in Australia has risen significantly as a result in the years since COVID.
• Children who experience poverty and housing stress are significantly more likely to suffer nervousness or feel unhappy with their lives for up to ten years after leaving home.
• Children are 8 per cent more likely to stay in poverty
• Children are 11 per cent less likely to be employed
• Rising housing costs hit low-income families harder = with rents increasing by 17.8% for lower quartile rentals between 2020-2022.
• Many families are forced to move to more affordable housing, often resulting in dissatisfaction and psychological distress.
• Another 102,000 children were plunged into poverty between 2021 and 2022.
• 3.7 million people and 823,000 children living below the poverty line

We are failing every Australian child who each day is going hungry, without a place to call home and reduced educational and life opportunities.  Most Australians are shocked to discover that 17 per cent of our kids live in poverty.

The Child Poverty in Australia 2024 report by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre released during Homelessness Week was commissioned by the Valuing Children Initiative for the End Child Poverty campaign.

Sign the petition to End Child Poverty now