Executive Summary

How are they faring? South Australia’s 2022 Report Card for children and young people is the third report of population-level outcomes for children and young people from birth to 18 years under South Australia’s Outcomes Framework for Children and Young People (framework).

This legislated framework, a first in Australia, has been prepared under the Children and Young People (Oversight and Advocacy Bodies) Act 2016.

This year’s report card is in two distinct parts:

• Part A – reports for all children and young people1
• Part B – reports for Aboriginal children and young people and commences on page 65 with a separate executive summary.

The data in both parts are reported for the framework’s five legislated dimensions – health, safety, wellbeing, education and citizenship – to provide an evidence-base that informs strategies, objectives, policies and funding decisions.

It is important to note that other forms of culturally relevant qualitative and/or quantitative data, that would give a clearer and more accurate picture of the outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people, are not covered in South Australia’s 2022 Report Card.

National comparison shows that, proportionally, more children and young people under 20 years live in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances in South Australia. In 2021, more than half of all children and young people (53.6%) lived in disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances, compared to 38.9% nationally. Of these, 26% lived with the most disadvantage (19.3% nationally).