Introduction
Every two years the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare releases the nation’s most comprehensive and authoritative source of statistics on welfare services. To mark the tenth report in the series, Australia’s welfare 2011 is accompanied by this companion booklet, introducing new readers to AIHW’s wide-reaching flagship publication.
Australia’s welfare in brief presents key comparisons and trends across the welfare sector, including those aspects that influence the demand for welfare services. We hope readers will be inspired to find out more by consulting Australia’s welfare 2011 or one of AIHW’s range of around 150 publications produced annually.
Preliminary material: Introduction; Title and verso page; Contents
1 Who are we?
- Australians in brief
- Our population is growing and ageing
- We are becoming more culturally diverse
- We live in different types of families
- One in five of us has a disability
- We are living longer, with more disability-free years
2 Where do we live?
- Most of us live in coastal cities
- A generation gap in regional areas
- Disability is more common in regional areas
- Most of us own our home
- Less public housing, more community housing
- People with special needs dominate social housing recipients
3 How do we engage with the community?
- Students are staying at school longer
- More females than males now participate in higher education
- Increasing workforce participation among women and older Australians...
- ...but some people still miss out on the benefits of work
4 How do we care for others?
- Half of all children under 15 attend child care
- Women and older people provide most informal care
- More children living in out-of-home care
- More than $130 billion spent on welfare in 2008–09
- Community service organisations employ over half a million people
5 Who is at risk of missing out?
- Jobless families
- School readiness varies
- Young people in the juvenile justice system
- Low income households in housing stress
- People seeking assistance from specialist homelessness services
- Groups vulnerable to homelessness
6 How do we compare?
- We are younger than many developed countries
- Welfare expenditure is slightly below OECD average—but relatively high for families
- Our high school students perform well
- But youth disengagement is still a problem
- Labour force participation lags for 'prime age workers'
7 What are we doing to find out more?
- Current AIHW projects