Characteristics and health conditions of children living with veteran parents

Most children of veterans were dependent children and had one veteran parent

This report focuses on children living with their veteran parents, either in a couple parent family or single parent family. It is important to note that children living away from their veteran parent(s), permanently or temporarily, have not been counted because the Census does not capture parent-child relationships between households. Therefore, children with veteran parents on deployment on Census night, as well as older, non-dependent children who have moved out of home are not captured in the analysis for this report.

In the 2021 Census, 238,000 children were identified as living with 152,000 veteran parents, representing 3.5% of all children living with their parent(s) on Census night.

Three in four veterans’ children were dependent children: children under 15 comprised 57% (136,000) and 18% (42,300) were dependent students aged 15–24. The remaining quarter were non-dependent children: non-dependent children 15–24 years comprised 11% (26, 200) and 14% (33,600) were non-dependent children 25 years and older (Table 1).

Of all veterans’ children, around 93% (222,000) had one veteran parent and just under 7% percent (15,900) had 2 veteran parents.

Of the children with one veteran parent, 81% (corresponding to 180,000) had an ex-serving parent, 12% (26,600) had a current serving permanent parent and 7% (15,400) had a current serving reserves parent.

Children of current serving members were younger than children of ex-serving members

Among children living with their parents, the age distribution of veterans’ children differed from non-veterans’ children (Table 1 and Figure 1). Children of current serving permanent and reserves members were younger while children of ex-serving members were older. Children under 15 years make up 80%, 73% and 52% of permanent, reserve and ex-serving families, respectively compared with 61% for non-veteran families. Children 25 years and older make up a larger proportion of the children living with their parents in families of ex-serving members (17%) compared with non-veteran (11%), reserve (4%) and permanent member families (2%). The children of ex-serving members tend to be older because older members are overrepresented in this population relative to current serving members (ABS 2021b).

The sex distribution of veterans’ children was similar to children with non-veteran parents, regardless of the service status of their parent(s).

Veterans’ dependent children may be more likely to live in a couple-parent family

As noted above, children living away from their veteran parent(s) on Census night could not be identified as the child of a veteran in this analysis. Therefore, where parents are separated and the child was not living with their veteran parent, children may inadvertently be captured within the comparator cohort of children with non-veteran parents.

A larger proportion of veterans’ children live in a couple-parent family than children with non-veteran parents (89% compared with 77%). Of the veterans’ children who could be identified in this analysis, 11% (25,000) live in single parent families while 23% of non-veteran children live in single parent families. The proportions of stepchildren and foster children were higher in families with veteran parents than non-veteran parents. In veteran families, 10% of children were stepchildren and 0.5% were foster children compared with 5.9% and less than 0.3%, respectively, for non-veteran families.

Less than 0.5% of veterans’ children (1,000) had parents living together in a same-sex relationship. Of these children, 87% had parents living in a female same-sex relationship. Among non-veterans’ children, less than 0.4% had with parents living together in a same-sex relationship, and 80% of these families had parents in a female same-sex relationship.

Children with veteran parents tend to have higher weekly family incomes

The family income of veterans’ children differed depending on the service characteristics of their parent(s) (Figure 2). This analysis examines the family unit and does not have the capacity to distinguish between couple-parent families and single-parent families or families with more than one person earning an income. As described above, there was a higher proportion of couple-parent families among veteran families.

• Overall, children with veteran parents tend to have higher weekly family incomes than children with non-veteran parents. This was most pronounced for children with 2 veteran parents (the most common weekly income bracket was $3000 – $3499 with 14% of 2 veteran parent families, compared with $2000 – $2499 with 13% of non-veteran parent families).
• Families of non-dependent children with an ex-serving parent are the only veteran family type with a weekly family income distribution that is similar to non-veteran families. See Ex-serving ADF members’ income and sources of income for an investigation on income outside the context of children.

Note: n.p. denotes not available for publication; the proportions (%) for the ‘compare to’ group are visible in the tooltips

Children of veterans are more likely to join ADF

Of the children living with their parents who were eligible to join the ADF (those aged 17 years and older), veterans’ children were more likely to have also ever served in the ADF than the eligible children of non-veterans (2.2% compared with 0.5%).

Notably, eligible children living with 2 veteran parents were over twice as likely to have themselves ever served in the ADF than children with one veteran parent (4.5% compared with 2.0%). This pattern was consistent across all age groups (Figure 3).

This analysis only examined children living with their parents, so it is unclear if these patterns of service in the ADF are consistent for children who do not live with their parents.

Note: n.p. denotes not available for publication