See the source data tables for further information and footnotes about these data.
Explanatory notes
Age is calculated from date of birth, in completed years. For intercountry adoptions, it is the age at which the child was placed with the adoptive family.
Only countries of origin with which Australia had an active adoption program since 2011–12 are presented. As at June 2019, Australia had an active intercountry adoption program with 13 countries: Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Latvia, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.
Since 1998, adoptions where the Hague Convention had not entered into force in the adoptive child’s country of origin before the file of the prospective parent(s) was sent were referred to as ‘non-Hague’ adoptions for national reporting purposes. Commencing 2017–18, the term ‘bilateral’ is used to refer to such adoptions.
The median length of time calculated for intercountry adoption processing times is reported in whole months. It is not suitable to calculate the median length of time for countries of origin with less than 4 placements.