End Child Poverty in Australia
For a country as wealthy as Australia, its child poverty rate is high and rising, driven largely by housing and rental costs. Compared with many OECD countries, Australia does less to reduce poverty through income support and social transfers, even though it has ample national wealth.
Current situation in Australia
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Nearly one in six Australian children are now estimated to be living in income poverty, with the rate projected to reach 15.6 per cent in 2025, or more than 950,000 children.
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Child poverty has increased sharply since 2021, with around 236,000 additional children pushed below the poverty line in just four years.
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Single-parent families face the greatest risk: more than one in three children in single‑parent households live below the standard 50 per cent of median income poverty line, and about one in ten are in severe poverty and live below 30 per cent of median income.
Depth and drivers of hardship
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A significant share of children live in severe poverty, with almost 350,000 children projected to be in households surviving on less than 30 per cent of median income after housing costs.
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Rapidly rising rents are the major pressure: median weekly rent for a three‑bedroom house rose about 25 per cent in three years to mid‑2025, outpacing wage growth and squeezing low‑income families hardest.
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Children in poverty are more likely to experience unhealthy housing, food insecurity, missed educational opportunities and social exclusion, which in turn harms their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development across the life course.
How Australia compares to OECD countries
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Australia uses a 50 per cent of median income poverty line, while the OECD standard child poverty benchmark is 60 per cent of median income, which would show even higher rates of disadvantage if applied here.
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Despite being among the richest nations per capita, Australia has the lowest unemployment assistance in the OECD as a share of average earnings and ranks poorly once the impact of taxes and transfers on inequality are taken into account.
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Other OECD countries generally rely more on stronger social protection, family payments and higher minimum income floors, meaning their systems are more effective at reducing child poverty from market-income levels than Australia’s.
Child Poverty Rates in Australia
- In 2025 an estimated 103,900 children (16.2 per cent, or nearly 1 in 6 children) live in poverty in WA.
- This includes 30,300 children growing up in severe poverty.
- Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia rank worst among the states at the household level, while South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales rank worst on child poverty.
- The Australian Capital Territory has the lowest household poverty rate, followed by Victoria and Queensland, while Tasmania and Queensland have the lowest rates of child poverty.
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