“Mission Australia’s 13th national Youth Survey tested the views of almost 14,000 young people between the ages of 15-19.
In addition to asking about their personal and national concerns it surveyed what young people value, who they turn to for help, what activities they engage in and how they feel about the future. The 2014 survey included a particular focus on young people’s aspirations.” – Mission Australia, 2014
INTRODUCTION
Demographic profile of respondents
A total of 13,600 young people aged 15-19 years responded to Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2014. The largest number of responses came from New South Wales (28.4%), Victoria (22.9%) and Queensland (20.4%). Over half of the respondents (61.2%) were female and 5.6% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. The percentage of young people who spoke a language other than English at home was 19.7%, similar to results in 2013 (22.1%). The level of reported disability remained fairly constant again between 2014 (4.4%) and 2013 (4.3%). The vast majority of respondents were studying full-time (93.8%), slightly lower than the 95.2% in 2013. Over one third (35.9%) of respondents were working part-time and 35.4% were looking for work, again consistent with previous years.
Young people’s aspirations
The Youth Survey 2014 asked young people about the importance and achievability of a number of personal aspirations. Over eight in ten young people indicated that achieving career success (87.4%) and being financially independent (86.1%) were either extremely important or very important to them, while around seven in ten indicated that owning your own home (72.6%) and having your own family (67.5%) were extremely important or very important. Four in ten respondents (41.0%) stated that feeling part of your community was extremely important or very important to them.
Interestingly, while significant proportions of young people indicated that these items were important to them, fewer felt that these would be achievable. Of those that highly valued these items, seven in ten felt either extremely likely or very likely to be able to achieve owning your own home (71.0%) while around two thirds felt that feeling part of your community (66.3%) and being financially independent (65.5%) were highly likely to be achievable. Achieving career success was felt to be either extremely likely or very likely to be achievable by around six in ten (59.9%) respondents.
Overall, a greater proportion of male respondents indicated that they felt likely to be able to achieve career success, financial independence, and home ownership than female respondents.
Mission Australia Youth Survey 2014 (4.25Mb)
Fildes, J., Robbins, A., Cave, L., Perrens, B. and Wearring, A. 2014, Mission Australia’s 2014 Youth Survey Report, Mission Australia.