The Children’s Headline Indicators (CHI) are a set of 19 indicators endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers' Conference, Community and Disability Services Ministers' Conference and the Australian Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs Senior Officials Committee in 2008 (first reported in 2009). They are high level, measureable indicators that identify the immediate environments as particularly important to children’s health, development and wellbeing. The CHI are presented from 2006 to 2016 and are grouped into 3 broad topic areas – Health, Early learning and care and Family and community.

  • Cat. no: CWS 64
Findings from this report:

  • 3.1 infants per 1,000 live births died in 2016, decreasing from 4.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006

  • 11 births per 1,000 were to teenage mothers in 2015, decreasing from 13 per 1,000 females in 2014

  • 10 per cent of women smoked in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy in 2015, declining steadily from 13 per cent in 2011

  • 22 per cent of children were living in households with housing stress in 2016, decreasing from 26 per cent in 2011