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Census 2016 Topic Paper

Children 4-12 Years old in Greater Western Sydney

By Barbara Beard, Social Research and Information Officer,

WESTIR Ltd

March 2020

Phot by Guduru Ajay bhargav from Pexels

© WESTIR Limited A.B.N 65 003 487 965 A.C.N. 003 487 965

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Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 1

Regions .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Glossary ................................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Population ............................................................................................................................................... 6

Indigenous Status .................................................................................................................................. 12

Country of Birth .................................................................................................................................... 13

Top Ten countries of birth 2016 ....................................................................................................... 14

Place of birth of parents ................................................................................................................... 15

Language spoken at home ................................................................................................................ 16

Proficiency in English ........................................................................................................................ 16

Ancestry ............................................................................................................................................ 18

Family Composition .............................................................................................................................. 20

Relationship in Household ................................................................................................................ 22

Dwelling type ........................................................................................................................................ 23

Dwelling type – Change 2006-2016 .................................................................................................. 24

Tenure & Landlord Type ....................................................................................................................... 25

Rented dwellings – Landlord type .................................................................................................... 26

Usual address one and five years previously ........................................................................................ 27

Educational Institute Attending ............................................................................................................ 28

Home schooling .................................................................................................................................... 30

Childcare ............................................................................................................................................... 32

AEDC – Australian Early Development Census ..................................................................................... 34

Out of Home Care ................................................................................................................................. 37

Core Activity Need for Assistance ......................................................................................................... 40

Childhood Health .................................................................................................................................. 41

Mental Health ................................................................................................................................... 41

Immunisation .................................................................................................................................... 42

Hospital Admissions for Myringotomy (Gromets) ............................................................................ 43

Child Deaths .......................................................................................................................................... 45

Deaths of children known to FACS (now DCJ)................................................................................... 47

Child Safety in Cars............................................................................................................................ 48

Juvenile Crime ....................................................................................................................................... 49

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 52

Regions

Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is made up of the following 13 local government areas (LGAs):

• Blacktown

• Blue Mountains

• Camden

• Campbelltown

• Canterbury – Bankstown

• Cumberland

• Fairfield

• Hawkesbury

• Liverpool

• Parramatta

• Penrith

• The Hills Shire

• Wollondilly

GWS is also compared with data for Greater Sydney, Rest of Sydney, FACS Western Sydney District,

FACS South Western Sydney District and NSW:

• Greater Sydney and NSW are compiled from ABS boundaries.

• Rest of Sydney is calculated by subtracting the totals of Greater Sydney with the totals of

GWS.

• DCJ - Western Sydney District (DCJ WS District) is made up of Blacktown, Blue Mountains,

Cumberland, Hawkesbury, Lithgow, Parramatta, Penrith and The Hills Shire LGAs.

• DCJ South Western Sydney (DCJ SWS District) is made up of Camden, Campbelltown,

Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly LGAs.

This paper also covers two additional LGAs, Lithgow and Wingecarribee, which are not included in

GWS totals but are included in DCJ SWS & WS District totals.

Statistical Areas – ABS geographical structures Statistical areas are geographic areas defined in the ASGS. SA1s are generally the basis of output for

most data, the exception being some Place of Work destination zones and Usual residence one and

five years ago. SA1s also serve as one of the building blocks in the ASGS and are used for the

aggregation of statistics to larger Census geographic areas. SA1s build into SA2s which then build

into SA3s which build into SA4s. SA1s cover the whole of Australia with no gaps or overlaps.

Map 1: GWS regions and additional LGAs of Lithgow and Wingecarribee

Glossary ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics

ACECQA Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority

ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

AEDC Australian Early Development Census (Formerly AEDI)

AIHW Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

AIFS Australian Institute of Family Studies

AS Australian Standard

ASR Age-standardised rate per 100/1,000/100,000 population

BOCSAR Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

CDRT Child Death Review Team

DCJ Department of Communities and Justice (formerly FACS)

FDC Family Day Care

GWS Greater Western Sydney

LDC Long Day Care

NAPLAN National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

NESA NSW Education Standards Authority

NIP National Immunisation Program

NQS National Quality Standard (Childcare)

OOHC Out of Home Care

OSHC Out of School Hours Care

PHIDU Public Health Information Development Unit

PSK Preschool/Kindergarten Care

ROSH Risk of Significant Harm

SA1 Statistical Area (see Regions for further explanation)

SR Indirectly age-standardised ratio

SUDI Sudden Unexpected death

VPD Vaccine preventable diseases

Children 4-12 years Introduction This paper tells the story of children aged 4-12 years who lived in Greater Western Sydney and the

outer LGAs of Lithgow and Wingecarribee in 2016. This period of a child’s life includes many events

such as starting preschool, entering infants/primary school, moving into high school and shifting

from being a highly dependent child, to becoming an adolescent with more responsibilities and the

first steps of independence. These children live in different family situations, with varying family

incomes and some may experience their own poor health or poor health of their parents or siblings.

Many of these events play a part in shaping a child’s future. This paper aims to identify the situations

and events that may have a negative effect on a child, while highlighting those that may have a

positive effect. Directing resources to early intervention may help minimise the negative impacts

and achieve positive outcomes for all children, resulting in those children reaching their full

potential.

This paper covers 4-12-year-old children, but due to the differences between 4-year-old and 12-

year-old children, this cohort has been broken down into smaller ranges when necessary. This is

generally when a more accurate or detailed analysis is needed to provide a better indication of how

different ages may experience the same situation.

The smaller ranges used are:

• 4-6-years-old (preschool/kindergarten),

• 7-10-years-old (infants/primary school),

• 11-12-years-old (late primary/early high school).

Some datasets are only available in predetermined age ranges, or specific areas. This also influences

how an issue is covered in this paper.

Population The population pyramid, in Figure 1, shows the population of GWS in 2016 by age and sex. This

pyramid contains bulges at the age ranges of young children and young adults, as well as indents due

to the lower numbers of children 12 years through to young adults of 28 years. It also indicates the

population, as a whole, to have longer life expectancy as there were significant numbers of people

aged 88 or more, particularly among females. In the past, population pyramids tended to be wide at

the base and tapered off to a point, indicating a young population with high birth rates and low life

expectancy. Many countries now have low birth rates and high life expectancy which creates a

straighter pyramid or an inverse pyramid. Different events in history, such as war, disease or famine,

may also change the shape of the pyramid for certain cohorts. This pyramid indicates that GWS has

many young families with higher numbers of young children and the associated adults aged in their

late twenties and thirties.

Figure 1: Population Pyramid, GWS, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Table Builder Pro

Children aged 4-12 years made up 12.6% of the population of GWS in 2016, a total of 291,384

children. Camden had the highest proportion of children aged 4-12 years (14.3%) followed by

Blacktown, Liverpool, The Hills Shire and Wollondilly, all with 13.7%. In GWS, the Blue Mountains

had the lowest proportion of 4-12 years old (11.5%). Lithgow (10.3%) and Wingecarribee (11.0%)

also had a low proportion of children aged 4-12 years. The largest number of 4-12 years old children

lived in the largest GWS LGAs, by population, in Blacktown (46,253 persons) and Canterbury-

Bankstown (42,758 persons). Table 1 shows the population of 4-12 years old by smaller age ranges

related to stages of life. These were:

• 4-6 years Preschool and Kindergarten

• 7-10 years Primary School

• 11-12 years Late Primary, early Secondary School

There may be exceptions within these age ranges with some children being in one age range but not

the corresponding level of school. However, for the purposes of this paper, these categories have

been allocated to broadly represent the most common stages of life for children aged 4-12 years.

The table shows that the proportion of 4-6-year-olds varied from 4.9% in Blacktown and Camden to

3.7% in Blue Mountains and Fairfield. Camden had the highest proportion of 7-10-year-olds (6.4%)

and 11-12-year-olds (2.9%), along with Liverpool (2.9%) while Parramatta had the lowest proportion

of 7-10-year-olds (4.6%) and 11-12-year-olds (2.0%).

Table 1: Number of persons 4-12 years, Selected Regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Table Builder Pro- Counting Persons, Place of Usual Residence

The following three maps illustrate the number of children by age range across GWS and

surrounding LGAs. In the maps showing children aged 4-6 years and 7-10 years, the higher number

of children living in GWS compared to the rest of Sydney is clearly visible. In the map showing 11-12-

year-old children, the number of children appears more evenly spread but there are larger clusters

within GWS than other Sydney LGAs.

No. % No. % No. % No. %

Blacktown 16,456 4.9% 20,491 6.1% 9,299 2.8% 46,253 13.7% 336,965

Blue Mountains 2,859 3.7% 4,038 5.3% 1,972 2.6% 8,880 11.5% 76,902

Camden 3,838 4.9% 5,028 6.4% 2,279 2.9% 11,153 14.3% 78,220

Campbelltown 7,149 4.6% 9,155 5.8% 4,178 2.7% 20,477 13.0% 157,007

Canterbury-Bankstown 15,004 4.3% 18,951 5.5% 8,791 2.5% 42,758 12.3% 346,300

Cumberland 9,828 4.5% 11,364 5.3% 4,970 2.3% 26,161 12.1% 216,077

Fairfield 7,410 3.7% 10,464 5.3% 5,127 2.6% 23,015 11.6% 198,816

Hawkesbury 2,574 4.0% 3,552 5.5% 1,735 2.7% 7,851 12.2% 64,591

Lithgow 702 3.3% 993 4.7% 475 2.3% 2,173 10.3% 21,090

Liverpool 9,551 4.7% 12,417 6.1% 6,001 2.9% 27,967 13.7% 204,330

Parramatta 9,217 4.1% 10,301 4.6% 4,463 2.0% 23,983 10.6% 226,153

Penrith 8,611 4.4% 11,000 5.6% 5,094 2.6% 24,708 12.6% 196,064

The Hills Shire 7,063 4.5% 9,813 6.2% 4,641 3.0% 21,518 13.7% 157,243

Wingecarribee 1,637 3.4% 2,398 5.0% 1,211 2.5% 5,246 11.0% 47,878

Wollondilly 2,178 4.5% 3,024 6.2% 1,458 3.0% 6,660 13.7% 48,520

GWS (13 LGAs) 101,738 4.4% 129,598 5.6% 60,008 2.6% 291,384 12.6% 2,307,188

DCJ - WS District 57,310 4.4% 71,552 5.5% 32,649 2.5% 161,527 12.5% 1,295,085

DCJ - SWS District 46,767 4.3% 61,437 5.7% 29,045 2.7% 137,276 12.7% 1,081,071

Greater Sydney 188,527 3.9% 242,385 5.0% 112,414 2.3% 543,314 11.3% 4,823,997

Rest of NSW 98,784 3.7% 136,076 5.1% 64,402 2.4% 299,271 11.3% 2,656,234

NSW 287,311 3.8% 378,461 5.1% 176,816 2.4% 842,585 11.3% 7,480,231

Region

Number of Persons 4-12 years, Selected Regions, 2016

4-6 years 7-10 years 11-12 years Total 4-12 years Total

Population

Map 2: Number of children aged 4-6 years, GWS, 2016

Population change 2006-2016 Although the number of 4-12-year-old children in GWS increased from 260,773 children in 2006 to

291,387 in 2016, they went from making up 13.5% of the total population to only 12.6% in 2016. In

all regions except the Rest of NSW, this was the same story: more children, but a larger population

where they made up a smaller proportion. The Rest of NSW had an overall decrease in the number

and proportion of children. Blacktown LGA had the largest number of children in Blacktown aged 4-

12 years in 2006, 2011 and 2016. Overall, the number of children increased by 14.6% from 2006 to

2016. However, in 2006 these children made up 14.9% of the total population but by 2016 this had

decreased to 13.7%.

In Camden, large scale development has seen the total population explode. With that, the number

of children 4-12 years rose from only 7,592 in 2006 up to 11,158 in 2016, an increase of 47.0%, the

largest in GWS. Camden also had the largest proportion of 4-12-year-old children in its population.

Other LGAs, with large increases of children from 2006-2016, were Parramatta (29.7%), The Hills

Shire (20.1%) and Cumberland (17.7%). Although the population of children aged 4-12 years in

Parramatta increased by 29.7% over ten years, these children made up the smallest proportion

(10.6%) of all LGAs and regions (See Table 2).

Four LGAs in GWS experienced a decrease in the number of children aged 4-12 years between 2006

and 2016. These were Blue Mountains (-2.8%; 9,137 in 2006 to 8,885 in 2016), Campbelltown (-0.2%;

20,524 in 2006 to 20,473 in 2016), Fairfield (-2.6%; 23,627 in 2006 to 23,020 in 2016) and

Hawkesbury (-9.1%; 8,545 in 2006 to 7,853 in 2016). Outside GWS, Lithgow and Wingecarribee also

experienced decreases of -9.1% and -4.3% respectively. Greater Sydney experienced an increase of

13.5% and the Rest of NSW experienced a decrease of -1.0%, resulting in overall growth of 7.9% for

NSW.

Table 2: Number, proportion & change, 4-12-year-old children in total population, 2006-2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Timeseries Datapack, Table 3.

2006 2011 2016 2006 2011 2016 2011-2016 2006-2016

Blacktown 40,364 42,221 46,251 14.9% 14.0% 13.7% 9.5% 14.6%

Blue Mountains 9,137 9,069 8,885 12.3% 11.9% 11.6% -2.0% -2.8%

Camden 7,592 8,324 11,158 15.3% 14.7% 14.3% 34.0% 47.0%

Campbelltown 20,524 18,873 20,473 14.3% 12.9% 13.0% 8.5% -0.2%

Canterbury-Bankstown 37,832 39,298 42,759 12.6% 12.3% 12.3% 8.8% 13.0%

Cumberland 22,220 23,070 26,156 12.8% 11.9% 12.1% 13.4% 17.7%

Fairfield 23,627 22,942 23,020 13.1% 12.2% 11.6% 0.3% -2.6%

Hawkesbury 8,545 8,087 7,853 14.1% 13.0% 12.2% -2.9% -8.1%

Lithgow 2,394 2,263 2,175 12.1% 11.2% 10.3% -3.9% -9.1%

Liverpool 24,776 25,599 27,974 15.1% 14.2% 13.7% 9.3% 12.9%

Parramatta 18,491 19,546 23,979 10.6% 10.1% 10.6% 22.7% 29.7%

Penrith 23,763 22,765 24,702 13.8% 12.8% 12.6% 8.5% 4.0%

The Hills Shire 17,925 19,311 21,521 13.5% 13.6% 13.7% 11.4% 20.1%

Wingecarribee 5,478 5,276 5,245 13.0% 11.9% 11.0% -0.6% -4.3%

Wollondilly 5,977 6,121 6,656 14.8% 14.1% 13.7% 8.7% 11.4%

GWS (13 LGAs) 260,773 265,226 291,387 13.5% 12.7% 12.6% 9.9% 11.7%

DCJ - WS District 142,839 146,332 161,522 13.2% 12.5% 12.5% 10.4% 13.1%

DCJ - SWS District 125,806 126,433 137,285 13.7% 12.9% 12.7% 8.6% 9.1%

Greater Sydney 478,489 495,749 543,316 11.6% 11.3% 11.3% 9.6% 13.5%

Rest of NSW 302,427 293,856 299,267 12.5% 11.7% 11.3% 1.8% -1.0%

NSW 780,916 789,605 842,583 11.9% 11.4% 11.3% 6.7% 7.9%

RegionChangeNumber Proportion of total population

Number, proportion & change, 4-12 year old children in total population, 2006-2016

Indigenous Status In 2016 there were 8,722 children in GWS who were aged 4-12 years and identified as Indigenous.

This made up 3.0% of all children aged 4-12 years in GWS. Within GWS, Campbelltown had the

highest proportion of Indigenous children (6.7%), followed by Hawkesbury (6.6%) and Penrith

(6.3%). The Hills Shire had the lowest proportion of Indigenous children (0.7%) followed by

Parramatta (0.8%) and Cumberland (0.9%). In Lithgow the proportion of Indigenous children (10.7%)

was more than triple that of GWS (3.0%) and Greater Sydney (2.5%) and slightly higher than The Rest

of NSW (10.4%). When the overall proportion of children aged 4-12 years was high in an LGA, each

of the three age ranges within this age group tended to also be high, with only slight variations

higher or lower than the total figure. For example, Lithgow had a high proportion of Indigenous

children 4-12 years (10.7%) and each range within that age, 4-6 years (10.3%), 7-10 years (11.5%)

and 11-12 years (9.4%) were a similar proportion. Fairfield had a low proportion of Indigenous

children aged 4-12 years (1.1%) and each of the three ranges were similar (See Table 3).

The table below shows the proportion of Indigenous children in NSW (5.3%) to be higher than GWS

(3.0%) and Greater Sydney (2.5%) but much lower than the Rest of NSW (10.4%). This indicates that

the largest Indigenous populations reside in the rural areas of NSW rather than Sydney. For more

details on the Indigenous population of GWS please read WESTIR Limited’s Census 2016 Topic Paper

“Indigenous Population of Greater Western Sydney”1.

Table 3: Indigenous status, by number and %, 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro

1 https://www.westir.org.au/new/images/IPGWS.pdf

Blacktown 714 4.3% 939 4.6% 431 4.6% 2,084 4.5%

Blue Mountains 134 4.7% 163 4.0% 76 3.8% 373 4.2%

Camden 134 3.5% 207 4.1% 90 4.0% 431 3.9%

Campbelltown 470 6.6% 617 6.7% 276 6.6% 1,363 6.7%

Canterbury-Bankstown 157 1.0% 204 1.1% 113 1.3% 474 1.1%

Cumberland 70 0.7% 119 1.0% 47 0.9% 236 0.9%

Fairfield 94 1.3% 150 1.4% 52 1.0% 296 1.3%

Hawkesbury 185 7.1% 232 6.5% 99 5.7% 516 6.6%

Lithgow 72 10.3% 113 11.5% 45 9.4% 230 10.7%

Liverpool 214 2.2% 281 2.3% 118 2.0% 613 2.2%

Parramatta 56 0.6% 93 0.9% 34 0.8% 183 0.8%

Penrith 530 6.2% 709 6.4% 310 6.1% 1,549 6.3%

The Hills Shire 43 0.6% 68 0.7% 32 0.7% 143 0.7%

Wingecarribee 64 3.9% 80 3.3% 43 3.6% 187 3.6%

Wollondilly 110 5.0% 146 4.9% 88 6.0% 344 5.2%

GWS (13 LGAs) 2,939 2.9% 3,996 3.1% 1,787 3.0% 8,722 3.0%

DCJ - WS District 1,804 3.1% 2,436 3.4% 1,074 3.3% 5,314 3.3%

DCJ - SWS District 1,243 2.7% 1,685 2.7% 780 2.7% 3,708 2.7%

Greater Sydney 4,639 2.5% 6,271 2.6% 2,893 2.6% 13,803 2.5%

Rest of NSW 10,526 10.7% 14,115 10.4% 6,585 10.2% 31,226 10.4%

NSW 15,180 5.3% 20,405 5.4% 9,493 5.4% 45,078 5.3%

Indigenous status, by number & % of children aged 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

4-6 years 7-10 years 11-12 years Total 4-12 Years

Indigenous - Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander

Region

Country of Birth In 2016 in GWS, a total of 32,170 children aged 4-12 years were born overseas (11.0%) and a further

13,682 (4.7%) did not state their country of birth. Parramatta had the highest proportion of children

4-12 years who were born overseas (21.6%) followed by Cumberland (15.8%), and Fairfield (13.8%).

The LGAs in GWS with the lowest proportion of children 4-12 years who were born overseas were

Wollondilly (1.4%), Hawkesbury (1.6%) and Blue Mountains (3.1%). The proportion of children with

no country of birth stated was highest in Lithgow (8.5%) followed by Liverpool (6.3%) and

Campbelltown (5.6%). In GWS and Greater Sydney 11.0% of children 4-12 years were born overseas

which was higher than NSW (8.4%) and significantly higher than the Rest of NSW (3.5%). The table

below gives further details for each LGA and comparative regions, highlighting that children aged 4-

12 years and born overseas, were more likely to live in specific LGAs of Greater Sydney than in rural

areas. DCJ – WS District had a higher proportion of children born overseas (11.9%) than DCJ – SWS

District (9.6%). Both were higher than the overall GWS proportion of 11.0%.

Table 4: Country of birth by number & %, 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro. *Included Migratory offshore & no fixed address

Within the age range of 4-12 years, the likelihood of a child being born overseas increased with age.

In GWS only 8.9% of 4-6-year-olds were born overseas, increasing to 11.3% of 7-10-year-old and

14.3% for 11-12-year-olds. This pattern was repeated for all selected regions despite how low or

high the overall proportion was for all 4-12-year-olds. For example, in the Rest of NSW only 3.5% of

4-12-year-olds were born overseas but this varied from 2.9% of 4-6-year-olds to 4.1% of 11-12 year-

olds. Figure 2 shows the comparison between ages and regions in 2016. In particular, it highlights

the difference between the Rest of NSW and regions within Greater Sydney.

Region

No. % No. % No. %

Blacktown 38,378 83.0% 5,740 12.4% 2,131 4.6% 46,249

Blue Mountains 8,276 93.2% 278 3.1% 325 3.7% 8,879

Camden 10,378 93.0% 371 3.3% 408 3.7% 11,157

Campbelltown 17,392 84.9% 1,932 9.4% 1,151 5.6% 20,475

Canterbury-Bankstown 35,985 84.2% 4,476 10.5% 2,293 5.4% 42,754

Cumberland 20,700 79.1% 4,126 15.8% 1,338 5.1% 26,164

Fairfield 18,702 81.2% 3,186 13.8% 1,130 4.9% 23,018

Hawkesbury 7,388 94.2% 141 1.8% 317 4.0% 7,846

Lithgow 1,957 90.0% 34 1.6% 184 8.5% 2,175

Liverpool 23,282 83.3% 2,917 10.4% 1,765 6.3% 27,964

Parramatta 17,769 74.1% 5,192 21.6% 1,022 4.3% 23,983

Penrith 22,277 90.1% 1,355 5.5% 1,082 4.4% 24,714

The Hills Shire 18,674 86.8% 2,362 11.0% 476 2.2% 21,512

Wingecarribee 4,772 91.0% 182 3.5% 289 5.5% 5,243

Wollondilly 6,325 94.9% 94 1.4% 244 3.7% 6,663

GWS (13 LGAs) 245,526 84.3% 32,170 11.0% 13,682 4.7% 291,378

DCJ - WS District 135,419 83.8% 19,228 11.9% 6,875 4.3% 161,522

DCJ - SWS District 116,836 85.1% 13,158 9.6% 7,280 5.3% 137,274

Greater Sydney 459,410 84.6% 59,792 11.0% 24,109 4.4% 543,311

Rest of NSW 272,538 91.1% 10,621 3.5% 16,118 5.4% 299,277

NSW* 732,248 86.9% 70,474 8.4% 40,289 4.8% 843,011

Country of birth, by number & % of 4-12 year olds by selected regions, 2016

Born in Australia Born overseas COB Not Stated

Total

Figure 2: Proportion of children 4-12 years born overseas, selected regions, 2016


Top Ten countries of birth 2016 The following table shows the top ten countries of birth for children in GWS who were aged 4-12

years in 2016. The vast majority of children were born in Australia (245,522 or 84.3%) and the

country of birth was not stated for 4.7% of children. The remaining 11.0% of children were born in

many different countries. However, for most countries of birth, the number of children born there

was very small, with all except three countries amounting to less than 1% of all children 4-12 years.

The most common overseas country of birth for children aged 4-12 years in GWS was India (5,588

children or 1.9%), followed by New Zealand (3,607 children or 1.2%), and Iraq (1,986 children or

0.7%). Although more than 150 countries were represented as countries of birth, less than one

percent of children were born in all but the top two countries.

Table 5: Top 10 Countries of birth, 4-12 years, GWS, 2016


Ranking Country of birth No. of children

1 Australia 245,522

2 India 5,588

3 New Zealand 3,607

4 Iraq 1,986

5 Pakistan 1,827

6 Philippines 1,723

7 China (ex. SARs and Taiwan) 1,582

8 England 1,262

9 Vietnam 935

10 Syria 845

Top 10 Countries of birth, children 4-12 years, GWS, 2016

Place of birth of parents Although there were not many children aged 4-12 years who were born overseas, the case is very

different for their parents. The table below shows whether a child’s parents were both born

overseas, both born in Australia or just their mother only or their father only were born overseas. In

GWS, more than half of all children (58.5%) in this age range had one or both parents born overseas

compared to only 36.6% with both parents born in Australia. The proportion of children with both

parents born in Australia varied from 14.2% in Cumberland to 78.0% in Wollondilly. The proportion

of children with both parents born overseas varied from 4.4% in Hawkesbury and Wollondilly to

67.1% in Fairfield. It was more common in GWS for a father to be born overseas than a mother with

9.9% of children having a father only born overseas and 7.0% having only a mother born overseas.

The not stated response for GWS was 4.8% but was higher in the outer areas of GWS, Lithgow and

Wingecarribee. GWS had a higher proportion of children with both parents born overseas (41.6%)

than Greater Sydney (34.9%), NSW (24.5%) and Rest of NSW (5.5%). The low proportion in Rest of

NSW compared to both GWS and Greater Sydney, highlights the larger number of people born

overseas in urban areas compared to rural areas. For more information about Cultural and Linguistic

Diversity in GWS please see our 2016 Census Paper2

Table 6: Place of birth of parents, children aged 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro Note *Includes No usual address (NSW) and Migratory - offshore-shipping

2 https://www.westir.org.au/new/images/CALDOCC.pdf

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Blacktown 21,816 47.2% 3,739 8.1% 2,739 5.9% 15,754 34.1% 2,209 4.8% 46,257

Blue Mountains 539 6.1% 1,120 12.6% 861 9.7% 6,010 67.7% 349 3.9% 8,879

Camden 1,459 13.1% 1,124 10.1% 803 7.2% 7,359 66.0% 406 3.6% 11,151

Campbelltown 7,321 35.8% 1,914 9.4% 1,352 6.6% 8,662 42.3% 1,219 6.0% 20,468

Canterbury-Bankstown 19,535 45.7% 5,967 14.0% 3,574 8.4% 11,341 26.5% 2,341 5.5% 42,758

Cumberland 15,149 57.9% 3,206 12.3% 1,857 7.1% 4,625 17.7% 1,312 5.0% 26,149

Fairfield 15,445 67.1% 1,784 7.7% 1,350 5.9% 3,272 14.2% 1,172 5.1% 23,023

Hawkesbury 346 4.4% 611 7.8% 470 6.0% 6,075 77.3% 356 4.5% 7,858

Liverpool 13,406 47.9% 2,922 10.4% 2,112 7.6% 7,783 27.8% 1,749 6.3% 27,972

Parramatta 13,563 56.6% 1,721 7.2% 1,695 7.1% 5,943 24.8% 1,057 4.4% 23,979

Penrith 4,440 18.0% 2,260 9.1% 1,647 6.7% 15,200 61.5% 1,169 4.7% 24,716

The Hills Shire 7,919 36.8% 1,969 9.2% 1,645 7.6% 9,484 44.1% 492 2.3% 21,509

Wollondilly 295 4.4% 504 7.6% 387 5.8% 5,201 78.0% 283 4.2% 6,670

Lithgow 93 4.3% 109 5.0% 75 3.4% 1,693 77.8% 206 9.5% 2,176

Wingecarribee 258 4.9% 483 9.2% 398 7.6% 3,789 72.3% 315 6.0% 5,243

GWS (13 LGAs) 121,233 41.6% 28,841 9.9% 20,492 7.0% 106,709 36.6% 14,114 4.8% 291,389

DCJ - WS District 63,865 39.5% 14,735 9.1% 10,989 6.8% 64,784 40.1% 7,150 4.4% 161,523

DCJ - SWS District 57,719 42.0% 14,698 10.7% 9,976 7.3% 47,407 34.5% 7,485 5.5% 137,285

Greater Sydney 189,713 34.9% 59,110 10.9% 47,518 8.7% 222,129 40.9% 24,852 4.6% 543,322

Rest of NSW 16,555 5.5% 17,907 6.0% 15,224 5.1% 232,181 77.6% 17,407 5.8% 299,274

NSW* 206,339 24.5% 77,051 9.1% 62,771 7.4% 454,538 53.9% 42,314 5.0% 843,013

Region Total

Place of birth of parents, children aged 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

Both parents born

overseas

Father only born

overseas

Mother only born

overseas

Both parents born

in AustraliaNot stated

Language spoken at home A total of 176 different languages are spoken at home in GWS by children aged 4-12 years. A total of

104,590 (35.9%) stated they spoke a language other than English at home and 4.6% did not state

what language they spoke at home. The most common language spoken was English (173,317

children or 59.5%) followed by Arabic (8.1%), Vietnamese (3.0%) and Mandarin (2.6%). All other

languages were spoken by less than 2% of children. The proportion of children speaking a language

other than English at home (35.9%) compared to the number of children born overseas (11.0%)

highlights how many children, while born in Australia, are a continuing part of cultural diversity in

GWS.

Table 7: Top 15 languages spoken at home, 4-12 years old, GWS, 2016


Proficiency in English In GWS in 2016, 59.5% of children aged 4-12 years spoke English only and 4.6% did not state if they

spoke another language or their proficiency in English. The remaining 35.9% of children spoke a

language other than English and spoke English in varying degrees of proficiency. Most children who

spoke another language spoke English very well (26.2%) and a further 7.1% spoke English well. Only

2.7% of children aged 4-12 years who spoke a language other than English, spoke English either not

well (2.3%) or not at all (0.4%).

The LGAs with the lowest English proficiency for 4-12-year-olds were Fairfield with 6.0% of children

speaking English not well (4.9%) or not at all (1.1%) and Cumberland with 4.9% (not well 4.2% and

not at all (0.7%). Cumberland and Fairfield also had a higher proportion of children born overseas

(15.8% and 13.8% respectively) than GWS (11.0%). Parramatta had the highest proportion of

children born overseas (21.6%) with 3.8% speaking English not well and 0.6% not at all. See Table 8

for details for all selected LGAs, GWS and comparative and regions.

No. %

1 English 173,317 59.5%

2 Arabic 23,666 8.1%

3 Vietnamese 8,741 3.0%

4 Mandarin 7,634 2.6%

5 Hindi 5,141 1.8%

6 Urdu 4,448 1.5%

7 Cantonese 4,083 1.4%

8 Bengali 3,174 1.1%

9 Korean 3,019 1.0%

10 Punjabi 2,801 1.0%

11 Tamil 2,530 0.9%

12 Greek 2,331 0.8%

13 Assyrian Neo-Aramaic 2,285 0.8%

14 Gujarati 2,180 0.7%

15 Spanish 1,947 0.7%

13,487 4.6%Not stated

Top 15 Languages spoken at home, 4-12 years,

GWS, 2016

Language

Table 8: Proficiency in Spoken English, 4-12 years, Selected Regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro Note *Includes No usual address (NSW) and Migratory - offshore-shipping

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Blacktown 11,227 24.3% 2,595 5.6% 688 1.5% 85 0.2% 2,054 4.4% 29,594 64.0% 46,243

Blue Mountains 338 3.8% 33 0.4% 18 0.2% 7 0.1% 313 3.5% 8,163 92.0% 8,872

Camden 876 7.9% 145 1.3% 76 0.7% 9 0.1% 391 3.5% 9,651 86.6% 11,148

Campbelltown 4,026 19.7% 1,019 5.0% 233 1.1% 38 0.2% 1,100 5.4% 14,059 68.7% 20,475

Canterbury-Bankstown 16,480 38.6% 4,151 9.7% 1,398 3.3% 205 0.5% 2,280 5.3% 18,235 42.7% 42,749

Cumberland 10,573 40.4% 3,155 12.1% 1,086 4.2% 193 0.7% 1,300 5.0% 9,856 37.7% 26,163

Fairfield 9,155 39.8% 3,236 14.1% 1,126 4.9% 249 1.1% 1,026 4.5% 8,224 35.7% 23,016

Hawkesbury 221 2.8% 50 0.6% 17 0.2% 6 0.1% 336 4.3% 7,215 92.0% 7,845

Lithgow 43 2.0% 17 0.8% 6 0.3% - 0.0% 197 9.1% 1,905 87.9% 2,168

Liverpool 9,043 32.3% 2,115 7.6% 668 2.4% 138 0.5% 1,690 6.0% 14,305 51.2% 27,959

Parramatta 7,486 31.2% 2,722 11.4% 918 3.8% 133 0.6% 1,040 4.3% 11,682 48.7% 23,981

Penrith 2,360 9.5% 523 2.1% 143 0.6% 27 0.1% 1,074 4.3% 20,587 83.3% 24,714

The Hills Shire 4,251 19.8% 866 4.0% 326 1.5% 17 0.1% 463 2.2% 15,586 72.5% 21,509

Wingecarribee 142 2.7% 31 0.6% 9 0.2% 4 0.1% 291 5.6% 4,765 90.9% 5,242

Wollondilly 184 2.8% 38 0.6% 11 0.2% 3 0.0% 267 4.0% 6,152 92.4% 6,655

GWS (13 LGAs) 76,220 26.2% 20,648 7.1% 6,708 2.3% 1,110 0.4% 13,334 4.6% 173,309 59.5% 291,329

DCJ - WS District 36,499 22.6% 9,961 6.2% 3,202 2.0% 468 0.3% 6,777 4.2% 104,588 64.8% 161,495

DCJ - SWS District 39,906 29.1% 10,735 7.8% 3,521 2.6% 646 0.5% 7,045 5.1% 75,391 54.9% 137,244

Greater Sydney 115,063 21.2% 30,218 5.6% 10,317 1.9% 1,546 0.3% 23,621 4.3% 362,546 66.7% 543,311

Rest of NSW 10,403 3.5% 2,346 0.8% 920 0.3% 237 0.1% 16,208 5.4% 269,153 89.9% 299,267

NSW* 125,500 14.9% 32,578 3.9% 11,250 1.3% 1,791 0.2% 39,870 4.7% 632,014 75.0% 843,003

TotalRegionNot stated

Speaks a language other than English and Speaks English:

Well Not well Not at allSpeaks English Only

Proficiency in Spoken English, 4-12 years, Selected Regions, 2016

Very well

Ancestry When people answer the questions in the Census “What is the person’s ancestry?,” they can provide

up to two ancestries, which are then combined to produce the Ancestry multi-response. This means

that the total responses for this output do not match the number of children, as some people put

two responses while others may put only one, or none. Therefore, this section is meant to provide

an indicative view of ancestry in GWS, rather than a definitive statement. The most common

ancestry in GWS and all comparative regions was Australian followed by English. In GWS the third

most common ancestry was Lebanese, followed by Indian. Meanwhile, in Greater Sydney, Chinese

was the third most common ancestry followed by Irish, then Lebanese. In the Rest of NSW, ancestry

became much less diverse with the top four ancestries being Australian, English, Irish and Scottish.

Table 9 shows the number of persons who identify with the most common ancestries.

Table 9: Ancestry multi-response, 4-12 years, GWS & comparative regions, 2016


The following table (Table 10) provides the top ten ancestries for children aged 4-12 years in the

LGAs of GWS and the outer LGAs of Lithgow and Wingecarribee. This highlights the diversity

between these LGAs. Although Australian was the most common ancestry response in GWS, within

the LGAs, the most common ancestry in Cumberland was Lebanese and in Fairfield it was

Vietnamese. Australian was close behind for both LGAs. The next most common ancestry for nearly

all LGAs was English but in Parramatta it was Chinese and in Canterbury-Bankstown it was Lebanese.

ANCP Ancestry Multi

ResponseGWS

Greater

Sydney

Rest of

NSWNSW

Australian 90,762 196,042 169,917 366,147

English 55,717 129,761 106,595 236,479

Lebanese 21,656 26,990 867 27,866

Indian 19,621 26,550 2,500 29,061

Chinese 19,257 43,372 2,555 45,935

Irish 13,519 36,477 28,362 64,867

Italian 10,972 22,996 8,039 31,054

Vietnamese 10,382 12,675 582 13,262

Scottish 9,230 23,734 22,028 45,784

Filipino 9,019 12,582 2,151 14,739

Greek 5,536 13,834 1,707 15,541

Maltese 4,621 6,112 1,340 7,457

German 4,436 10,297 9,109 19,413

Samoan 4,396 4,896 600 5,501

Pakistani 4,230 4,764 277 5,045

Iraqi 3,562 3,722 154 3,876

Korean 3,514 7,212 359 7,571

Arab, nfd 2,790 3,225 319 3,548

Maori 2,717 4,195 1,631 5,831

Assyrian 2,620 2,861 46 2,907

New Zealander 2,594 6,817 2,745 9,570

Ancestry Multi-response, 4-12 years, GWS & Comparative

Regions, 2016

The tables also show that even when people are born in Australia and not overseas, they identify

with a very wide range of ancestries. Although many of these LGAs exhibit similar ancestry patterns,

each one is unique and displays a different cultural makeup. It needs to be remembered that these

ancestry tables are not exact counts of people and, therefore, will not match the population totals of

other tables.

Table 10: Top 10 Ancestries for GWS LGAs, Lithgow & Wingecarribee, 4-12 years, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro *Totals are higher count than population

Australian 14,422 Australian 5,112 Australian 5,583 Australian 7,528

English 8,970 English 3,528 English 3,585 English 4,796

Indian 5,877 Irish 1,220 Irish 908 Indian 1,317

Fi l ipino 3,864 Scottish 737 Italian 717 Irish 1,072

Irish 2,026 German 355 Scottish 698 Samoan 913

Chinese 1,548 Italian 249 Maltese 300 Scottish 830

Scottish 1,423 Chinese 153 German 278 Fi l ipino 716

Samoan 1,174 New Zealander 143 Indian 265 Lebanese 687

Italian 1,112 Dutch 142 Chinese 247 Bangladeshi 621

Pakistani 1,069 Maltese 91 Lebanese 203 Chinese 539

Australian 9,359 Lebanese 5,017 Vietnamese 4,666 Australian 4,453

Lebanese 8,827 Australian 4,946 Australian 3,327 English 2,921

English 4,933 Indian 2,710 Chinese 2,546 Irish 718

Chinese 3,195 English 2,473 English 2,258 Scottish 534

Vietnamese 2,882 Chinese 2,166 Assyrian 1,680 Maltese 432

Greek 2,516 Turkish 910 Lebanese 1,173 Italian 317

Italian 1,742 Afghan 887 Iraqi 1,130 German 211

Irish 1,170 Pakistani 665 Chaldean 1,101 Dutch 99

Indian 1,153 Fi l ipino 656 Italian 1,040 Chinese 93

Pakistani 1,070 Iraqi 563 Khmer (Cambodian) 1,001 New Zealander 90


English 3,779 Chinese 4,427 English 7,667 English 5,143

Lebanese 2,498 Indian 3,563 Irish 1,959 Chinese 2,632

Indian 1,890 English 3,384 Scottish 1,362 Indian 1,687

Italian 1,736 Korean 1,667 Italian 924 Irish 1,420

Vietnamese 1,477 Lebanese 1,183 Maltese 894 Italian 1,075

Chinese 1,258 Irish 1,038 Indian 858 Scottish 1,027

Iraqi 1,024 Italian 744 Fi l ipino 788 Lebanese 622

Irish 759 Fi l ipino 598 German 640 Korean 591

Serbian 672 Scottish 575 Lebanese 413 Fi l ipino 459


English 2,280 English 55,717 English 767 English 2,040

Irish 549 Lebanese 21,656 Scottish 190 Irish 561

Scottish 405 Indian 19,621 Irish 170 Scottish 436

Italian 348 Chinese 19,257 German 58 Italian 201

Maltese 214 Irish 13,519 Italian 50 German 120

German 152 Italian 10,972 Chinese 18 Dutch 73

Dutch 71 Vietnamese 10,382 Dutch 18 Chinese 58

Lebanese 63 Scottish 9,230 Fi l ipino 17 Greek 52

Greek 63 Fi l ipino 9,019 Australian Aboriginal 17 New Zealander 46

Top 10 Ancestries in LGAs of GWS, Lithgow & Wingecarribee, 4-12 years, 2016*

The Hills Shire

Lithgow Wollondilly

Canterbury-Bankstown Cumberland Fairfield Hawkesbury

Wingecarribee

Parramatta Penrith Liverpool

GWS (13 LGAs)

Blacktown Blue Mountains Camden Campbelltown (NSW)

Family Composition In 2016, in GWS, 77.7% of children 4-12 years lived in a Couple family with children, 16.9% lived in a

One parent family and 5.4% lived in a non-family/non-classifiable or non-private dwelling. The

proportion of children living in a One parent family in GWS varied from 24.4% in Campbelltown to

8.1% in The Hills Shire. Lithgow which is not part of GWS but is part of DCJ- WS District, had the

highest proportion of children living in a One parent family (24.5%). The Hills Shire had the highest

proportion of children 4-12 years living in a Couple family with children (89.0%) followed by

Wollondilly (81.9%) and Camden (81.1%). Campbelltown had the lowest proportion of children living

in a Couple family with children (69.3%), followed by Fairfield (71.6%) and Penrith (73.2%). See Table

11 for more detail.

Table 11: Family composition by family type, children 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

#Incl. Non-family/non-classifiable, unoccupied dwellings & non-private dwellings *Includes Migratory/offshore Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro, place of enumeration, 2016

When the 4-12-year age range is broken down into the smaller ranges of 4-6 years, 7-10 years and

11-12 years, an interesting trend appears. In GWS and all comparative regions, the older a child is,

the less likely they are to live in a Couple family with children and more likely to live in a one parent

family. The regions differ in the actual proportions of children, but all show the decrease in the

proportion of children living in Couple families with children and the increase in the proportion of

children living in a one parent family.

Figure 3 shows Greater Sydney and DCJ WS District to have a high proportion of children 4-6 years

living in Couple families with children, declining for children aged 7-10 years and further again for

children 11-12 years. The Rest of NSW starts with a much lower proportion of children 4-6 years

No % No % No %

Blacktown 35,567 76.7% 8,428 18.2% 2,349 5.1% 46,344

Blue Mountains 6,920 77.5% 1,498 16.8% 513 5.7% 8,931

Camden 8,998 81.1% 1,617 14.6% 484 4.4% 11,099

Campbelltown 14,207 69.3% 5,008 24.4% 1,282 6.3% 20,497


Cumberland 21,090 80.4% 3,710 14.1% 1,424 5.4% 26,224

Fairfield 16,531 71.6% 5,379 23.3% 1,189 5.1% 23,099

Hawkesbury 6,116 78.0% 1,276 16.3% 445 5.7% 7,837

Lithgow 1,414 65.6% 527 24.5% 214 9.9% 2,155

Liverpool 21,511 76.7% 4,695 16.7% 1,857 6.6% 28,063

Parramatta 19,982 82.5% 2,795 11.5% 1,448 6.0% 24,225

Penrith 18,094 73.2% 5,224 21.1% 1,396 5.6% 24,714

The Hills Shire 19,173 89.0% 1,735 8.1% 629 2.9% 21,537

Wingecarribee 4,002 75.7% 864 16.3% 424 8.0% 5,290

Wollondilly 5,435 81.9% 872 13.1% 331 5.0% 6,638

GWS (13 LGAs) 226,948 77.7% 49,216 16.9% 15,918 5.4% 292,082

DCJ - WS District 128,356 79.2% 25,193 15.6% 8,418 5.2% 161,967

DCJ - SWS District 104,008 75.6% 25,414 18.5% 8,138 5.9% 137,560

Greater Sydney 432,730 79.3% 81,854 15.0% 31,388 5.7% 545,972

Rest of NSW 211,242 70.2% 66,507 22.1% 23,286 7.7% 301,035

NSW* 643,971 76.0% 148,359 17.5% 54,919 6.5% 847,249

Family composition, by family type, children 4-12 years, selected regions, 2013

Couple family with

childrenOne parent family Not applicable#

TotalRegion

living in Couple families with children. However, the proportion declines, as do all other comparative

regions, as the children age, with the lowest proportion of children in couple families being those

aged 11-12 years.

Figure 3: Couple families with children, proportion of children 4-12 years, GWS & comparative regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro, place of enumeration, 2016 *Includes Migratory/offshore

Figure 4 shows the increase in the proportion of children aged 4-6 years in Lone parent families

which is converse to that shown for Couple families with children. A child aged 11-12 years is far

more likely to be living in a lone parent family than in a couple family with children than a child aged

4-6 years in GWS and all comparative regions.

Figure 4: Lone parent families by proportion of children 4-12 years, GWS & comparative regions, 2016


Relationship in Household The previous section established that most children aged 4-12 years lived in a Couple Family with

children. This section looks at a child’s relationship with the head of the household. The data

revealed that most children were the natural or adopted child of the head of the household,

regardless of whether that household was a Couple family with children, a Lone Parent family or

another family formation. In 2016, in GWS, 89.4% of children were a Natural or adopted child, 3.5%

of children were a Stepchild, 0.4% were a Foster child, and 0.8% were a Grandchild, which was very

similar to Greater Sydney. Rest of NSW had a lower proportion of Natural or adopted children

(84.7%) than GWS (89.4%) and a higher proportion of Stepchildren (5.2%), Foster children (0.8%) and

Grandchildren (1.4%).

There was variation in the makeup of families within the LGAs of GWS. Hawkesbury had the lowest

proportion of Natural or Adopted children (86.0%) followed by Campbelltown (86.3%) and Penrith

(86.6%), while The Hills Shire had the highest proportion (93.4%). The largest proportion of

Stepchildren was in Hawkesbury (5.8%) and the lowest in Parramatta (2.4%). Wollondilly had the

highest proportion of Foster children (1.0%), followed by Hawkesbury (0.9%). Lithgow, which is part

of DCJ – WS District, had a lower proportion of Natural or adopted children (79.4%) combined with a

higher proportion of Stepchildren (5.8%), Foster children (1.3%), and Grandchildren (1.9%). The

following table provided proportions for all GWS LGAs and comparative regions. The number of

children is available from WESTIR Ltd.

Table 12: Relationship in Household, % of children 4-12 years, GWS & comparative regions, 2016


Region

Natural or

adopted

child

Step-

child

Foster

child

Grand-

child

Otherwise

related

child

Unrelated

child

Visitor from

within

Australia

Other non-

classifiable

relationship

Not

applicable

Blacktown 89.5% 3.4% 0.4% 1.0% 0.6% 0.2% 1.3% 3.5% 0.1%

Blue Mountains 88.3% 4.7% 0.7% 0.9% 0.2% 0.1% 1.7% 2.9% 0.7%

Camden 88.3% 5.2% 0.8% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 1.5% 2.8% 0.4%

Campbelltown 86.3% 4.3% 0.8% 1.4% 0.7% 0.2% 1.6% 4.2% 0.3%

Canterbury-Bankstown 90.1% 2.7% 0.1% 0.6% 0.4% 0.2% 1.5% 4.2% 0.1%

Cumberland 91.2% 2.3% 0.2% 0.6% 0.5% 0.2% 1.3% 3.8% 0.1%

Fairfield 89.5% 3.1% 0.2% 1.0% 1.0% 0.4% 1.6% 3.1% 0.1%

Hawkesbury 86.0% 5.8% 0.9% 1.0% 0.3% 0.2% 1.6% 3.6% 0.5%

Lithgow 79.4% 5.8% 1.3% 1.9% 0.6% 0.0% 2.8% 7.6% 0.1%

Liverpool 88.9% 3.0% 0.3% 0.8% 0.5% 0.2% 1.3% 4.9% 0.1%

Parramatta 91.6% 2.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 1.1% 3.6% 0.4%

Penrith 86.6% 5.4% 0.7% 1.1% 0.6% 0.1% 1.8% 3.6% 0.2%

The Hills Shire 93.4% 2.9% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.6% 1.7% 0.5%

Wingecarribee 86.5% 4.6% 0.5% 0.7% 0.2% 0.2% 1.7% 4.7% 1.0%

Wollondilly 87.4% 5.0% 1.0% 0.9% 0.4% 0.2% 1.3% 3.0% 1.0%

GWS (13 LGAs) 89.4% 3.5% 0.4% 0.8% 0.5% 0.2% 1.4% 3.6% 0.2%

DCJ - WS District 89.8% 3.5% 0.4% 0.8% 0.4% 0.2% 1.3% 3.4% 0.3%

DCJ - SWS District 88.8% 3.5% 0.4% 0.9% 0.6% 0.2% 1.5% 4.0% 0.2%

Greater Sydney 89.9% 3.3% 0.3% 0.7% 0.4% 0.2% 1.4% 3.5% 0.3%

Rest of NSW 84.7% 5.2% 0.8% 1.4% 0.5% 0.2% 2.1% 4.5% 0.5%

NSW* 88.0% 4.0% 0.5% 0.9% 0.4% 0.2% 1.7% 3.9% 0.4%

Relationship in Household of children under 15 (including grandchildren) proportion of children 4-12 years,

selected regions, 2016

Dwelling type In GWS, in 2016, children aged 4-12 years were most likely to live in a separate house (76.9%).

Wollondilly, a rural area, had the highest proportion of children living in separate houses (97.8%)

compared to Parramatta, a higher density urban area, which had the lowest proportion of 55.0%.

Canterbury-Bankstown also had a low proportion (61.8%) as did Cumberland (62.4%). Each of these

councils has increasing development of high-rise apartments. As such Parramatta also had the

highest proportion of children living in a Flat or Apartment (27.1%) followed by Cumberland (20.0%)

and Canterbury/Bankstown (19.2%). Canterbury-Bankstown had the highest proportion of children

living in medium density housing in semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc. (17.9%)

followed by Blacktown (16.9%) and Parramatta (16.5%). The divide between more rural areas and

the city can be seen with 72.4% of children aged 4-12 years living in separate houses in Greater

Sydney, compared to 91.8% in the Rest of NSW. The ‘Other’ category in the following table includes

children living in caravans, cabins, houseboats, improvised homes, tents, house or flat attached to a

house, shop, or office etc as well as those in non-private dwellings or an unstated dwelling type.

These categories have been combined due to the small numbers in each, although it is worth noting

that the majority of children in this category were living in a flat, house or apartment attached to a

shop, or office etc. and only small numbers were living in the other types of dwellings. See Table 13

for more details.

Table 13: Dwelling type by location on Census night, children 4-12 years, selected LGAs & regions, 2016

*Includes flat/apartment attached to a house, other dwelling, not stated, unoccupied/non-private dwellings. Source: ABS Census 2016, Tablebuilder Pro, place of enumeration, 2016

No % No % No % No %

Blacktown 36,825 79.5% 7,829 16.9% 1,406 3.0% 268 0.6% 46,328

Blue Mountains 8,610 96.5% 138 1.5% 46 0.5% 126 1.4% 8,920

Camden 10,737 96.8% 308 2.8% 15 0.1% 31 0.3% 11,091

Campbelltown 17,031 83.0% 3,033 14.8% 349 1.7% 99 0.5% 20,512

Canterbury-Bankstown 26,518 61.8% 7,675 17.9% 8,234 19.2% 457 1.1% 42,884

Cumberland 16,380 62.4% 4,286 16.3% 5,261 20.0% 313 1.2% 26,240

Fairfield 17,592 76.1% 2,962 12.8% 2,195 9.5% 357 1.5% 23,106

Hawkesbury 7,254 92.4% 444 5.7% 73 0.9% 81 1.0% 7,852

Lithgow 1,959 90.9% 51 2.4% 11 0.5% 133 6.2% 2,154

Liverpool 23,175 82.6% 2,503 8.9% 2,233 8.0% 147 0.5% 28,058

Parramatta 13,325 55.0% 4,008 16.5% 6,572 27.1% 321 1.3% 24,226

Penrith 21,859 88.4% 2,107 8.5% 599 2.4% 153 0.6% 24,718

The Hills Shire 18,821 87.4% 2,121 9.8% 503 2.3% 88 0.4% 21,533

Wingecarribee 5,086 96.2% 74 1.4% 32 0.6% 93 1.8% 5,285

Wollondilly 6,510 97.8% 50 0.8% 16 0.2% 78 1.2% 6,654

GWS (13 LGAs) 224,637 76.9% 37,464 12.8% 27,502 9.4% 2,519 0.9% 292,122

DCJ - WS District 125,033 77.2% 20,984 13.0% 14,471 8.9% 1,483 0.9% 161,971

DCJ - SWS District 106,649 77.5% 16,605 12.1% 13,074 9.5% 1,262 0.9% 137,590

Greater Sydney 395480 72.4% 72,630 13.3% 71,395 13.1% 6,462 1.2% 545,967

Rest of NSW 276308 91.8% 12,473 4.1% 6,181 2.1% 6,059 2.0% 301,021

NSW 671788 79.3% 85,103 10.0% 77,576 9.2% 12,521 1.5% 846,988

Region

Dwelling type by number & proportion of childen 4-12 years, location on Census night, Selected LGAs

& regions, 2016

TotalSeparate house

Semi-detached,

row or terrace

house, townhouse

etc.

Flat or apartment in

a one or more

storey block

Other*

Dwelling type – Change 2006-2016 This section uses data extracted from Tablebuilder Pro over three Census databases. The changes in

the makeup of GWS makes it difficult to compare data for individual LGAs. The data was extracted

using the definition of GWS that was in use at the time of the census, that is, the total for the LGAs

and area defined as GWS in 2006, 2011 and 2016. For the most part, the boundaries have not

changed dramatically but there have been changes. Therefore, this section should be understood as

indicative of the changes in housing in GWS over the past ten years, rather than definitive. If more

information is needed for specific areas, please contact WESTIR Ltd.

The following graph clearly shows the changes from 2006 to 2016 in the density of dwellings in

which children lived in GWS. Children living in low density (Separate Houses), were the most

common group, but it is clear the proportion is declining. In 2006, in GWS, 85.1% of children aged 4-

12 years lived in separate houses, decreasing to 82.4% in 2011 and 76.9% in 2016. The proportion of

children living in medium density (Semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc.) increased

from 8.9% in 2006 to 12.8% in 2016. High density housing (Flat, unit or apartment) also increased

with only 5.4% of children aged 4-12 years living in high density dwellings in 2006, but nearly double

that amount (9.4%) in 2016. The proportion of children living in other types of dwellings has also

increased over time but has consistently remained below 1.0% in each of the three censuses.

Currently, across GWS, infill development of existing suburbs and greenfield development in the

South West and North West sectors will see a dramatic increase in the number of dwellings across

the region. We will need to wait until the next Census in 2021 to find out if this development

dramatically changes the proportions of children living in high, medium and low-density dwellings.

Figure 5: Dwelling type by proportion of 4-12-year-old children in GWS, 2006-2016

Source: ABS Census 2006, 2011, 2016 – Tablebuilder Pro, Place of Emuneration database

Tenure & Landlord Type In 2016, in GWS, children aged 4-12 years were most likely to live in a dwelling that was Owned with

a Mortgage (49.7%), followed by a Rented dwelling (34.5%), and least likely to live in a dwelling

Owned Outright (10.0%). Greater Sydney had a higher proportion of Owned outright dwellings

(11.5%) than GWS (10.0%) and dwellings owned with a mortgage (51.4% compared to 49.7%), which

resulted in a slightly lower proportion of Rented dwellings (31.4% compared to 34.5%). The LGA with

the highest proportion of Owned Outright dwellings was Fairfield (14.2%) and the lowest was

Campbelltown (7.0%). Wollondilly had the highest proportion of children aged 4-12 years living in

dwellings Owned with a mortgage (67.6%) and Fairfield had the lowest (39.0%). Cumberland had the

highest proportion of children aged 4-12 years living in Rented dwellings (42.7%) and Wollondilly

had the lowest (16.8%). See Table 14 for more details.

Table 14: Tenure type, children aged 4-12 years, selected LGAs & regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2006, 2011, 2016 – Tablebuilder Pro Place of Emuneration database

A few interesting points are highlighted by comparing tenure in the table above, to tenure in

WESTIR’s “Housing in Greater Western Sydney, 2016”3. In Blue Mountains, 37.8% of all dwellings

were owned outright in 2016, the highest proportion among GWS LGAs. However, this decreases to

10.2% of dwellings lived in by 4-12-year-old children, which places Blue Mountains lower than seven

other GWS LGAs and the same as Liverpool. Camden had the highest proportion of all dwellings

Owned with a mortgage in 2016 (50.2%) but this rose to 65.9% of dwellings in which children aged 4-

12 years lived. This highlights the need to look beyond the figures for the total population when

formulating housing policy. If policy is made on the assumption that home ownership is high or low

3 https://www.westir.org.au/new/images/HGWS.pdf

No % No % No % No %

Blacktown 3,286 7.1% 23,922 51.6% 16,629 35.9% 2,511 5.4% 46,340

Blue Mountains 911 10.2% 5,663 63.4% 1,939 21.7% 425 4.8% 8,927

Camden 874 7.9% 7,310 65.9% 2,437 22.0% 477 4.3% 11,097

Campbelltown 1,441 7.0% 9,640 47.0% 8,090 39.5% 1,334 6.5% 20,498

Canterbury-Bankstown 5,219 12.2% 18,014 42.0% 16,720 39.0% 2,933 6.8% 42,877

Cumberland 2,853 10.9% 10,514 40.1% 11,199 42.7% 1,655 6.3% 26,224

Fairfield 3,279 14.2% 9,007 39.0% 9,339 40.4% 1,480 6.4% 23,100

Hawkesbury 830 10.6% 4,584 58.4% 1,986 25.3% 439 5.6% 7,843

Lithgow 288 13.4% 1,046 48.5% 607 28.1% 214 9.9% 2,157

Liverpool 2,860 10.2% 14,049 50.1% 9,128 32.5% 2,013 7.2% 28,059

Parramatta 2,428 10.0% 10,738 44.3% 9,664 39.9% 1,388 5.7% 24,225

Penrith 2,025 8.2% 13,169 53.3% 8,160 33.0% 1,371 5.5% 24,717

The Hills Shire 2,657 12.3% 13,920 64.6% 4,306 20.0% 644 3.0% 21,538

Wingecarribee 673 12.7% 2,907 55.0% 1,336 25.3% 362 6.8% 5,290

Wollondilly 689 10.4% 4,493 67.6% 1,113 16.8% 354 5.3% 6,644

GWS (13 LGAs) 29,352 10.0% 145,023 49.7% 100,710 34.5% 17,024 5.8% 292,089

DCJ - WS District 15,278 9.4% 83,556 51.6% 54,490 33.6% 8,647 5.3% 161,971

DCJ - SWS District 15,035 10.9% 65,420 47.6% 48,163 35.0% 8,953 6.5% 137,565

Greater Sydney 63,050 11.5% 280,638 51.4% 171,399 31.4% 30,889 5.7% 545,978

Rest of NSW 32,406 10.8% 147,352 48.9% 99,766 33.1% 21,506 7.1% 301,028

NSW 95,456 11.3% 427,990 50.5% 271,165 32.0% 52,395 6.2% 847,006

Owned With a

MortgageOwned Outright Rented

Other/Not

stated/not

applicableLGA Total

Tenure type, children aged 4-12 years, selected LGAs & regions, 2016

in an LGA, this can overlook the fact that different cohorts, such as young families are not having the

same experiences of home ownership, mortgages or renting as other cohorts.

Rented dwellings – Landlord type Although 34.5% of dwellings in GWS in 2016 were Rented, they did not all have the same type of

landlord. Most children aged 4-12 years who lived in a Rented dwelling had a Real Estate Agent as

the landlord (69.5%), followed by a Person not in the same household (13.3%), State/Territory

housing (11.5%), Housing Co-operative (1.2%) or Other Landlord (3.4%). The Hills Shire had the

highest proportion of children living in a dwelling with a Real Estate Agent as landlord (83.0%) and

Campbelltown had the lowest (57.6%). Campbelltown had the highest proportion of children 4-12

years living in dwellings being rented from State/Territory housing (27.5%). followed by Blacktown

(18.1%) while The Hills Shire had the lowest (0.5%). Lithgow and Wingecarribee are outside of GWS

but included in DCJ districts. Lithgow had a lower proportion of dwellings rented from a Real Estate

Agent (50.9%) than all GWS LGAs. Lithgow’s proportion of dwellings rented from State/Territory

housing (22.2%) was second only to Campbelltown (27.5%). WESTIR’s housing paper also showed a

decrease in the number and proportion of State/Territory housing dwellings due to “government’s

policy position of selling public housing and redirecting resources to affordable and community

housing options” and that waiting times for public housing is 5-10 years in all LGAs except

Wollondilly where it was 2 to 5 years4. This means that many young families in GWS and beyond may

need, and qualify for, public/social housing but are unable to secure a dwelling due to a lack of

supply.

Table 15: Landlord type, children aged 4-12 years, selected LGAs & regions, 2016


4 https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/help/applying-assistance/expected-waiting-times

Real Estate

Agent

State/Territory

housing

Person not

in same

household

Housing co-

operative/Comm

unity/Church

group

Other

Landlord

type

Landlord

type not

stated

Blacktown 65.4% 18.1% 12.4% 1.0% 2.2% 0.9%

Blue Mountains 68.1% 4.2% 22.6% 2.0% 2.1% 1.0%

Camden 78.9% 3.9% 14.4% 0.0% 1.6% 1.1%

Campbelltown 57.6% 27.5% 11.6% 1.1% 1.2% 0.9%

Canterbury-Bankstown 69.8% 9.7% 13.8% 1.5% 3.9% 1.3%

Cumberland 71.4% 8.0% 13.8% 1.5% 4.4% 1.0%

Fairfield 67.8% 10.3% 14.5% 1.2% 4.6% 1.5%

Hawkesbury 64.4% 10.5% 16.7% 1.0% 5.9% 1.6%

Lithgow 50.9% 22.2% 21.4% 0.0% 3.1% 2.3%

Liverpool 67.4% 12.5% 11.5% 1.2% 6.2% 1.2%

Parramatta 78.3% 6.3% 10.5% 1.0% 3.1% 0.8%

Penrith 71.9% 8.9% 14.7% 1.3% 2.2% 1.0%

The Hills Shire 83.0% 0.5% 12.8% 0.2% 2.6% 0.8%

Wingecarribee 62.6% 6.7% 23.8% 1.1% 3.4% 2.4%

Wollondilly 66.2% 2.7% 23.1% 2.0% 3.2% 2.8%

GWS (13 LGAs) 69.5% 11.5% 13.3% 1.2% 3.4% 1.1%

DCJ - WS District 71.2% 10.4% 13.3% 1.1% 3.0% 1.0%

DCJ - SWS District 67.1% 12.8% 13.6% 1.3% 3.9% 1.3%

Greater Sydney 72.0% 8.6% 14.3% 1.1% 2.8% 1.1%

Rest of NSW 58.2% 11.1% 21.7% 1.9% 5.3% 1.8%

NSW 66.9% 9.5% 17.0% 1.4% 3.7% 1.4%

Rented with landlord type:

Landlord type, children aged 4-12 years, selected LGAs & regions, 2016

LGA

Usual address one and five years previously The Census asks people their address one and five years ago to measure internal migration, that is,

the movement of people from one point to another within a country. However, this only measures

movement on the dates of the two Censuses. It does not measure multiple moves within the inter-

Census period, and nor does it measure if someone has moved away and come back to the same

address during the Census period.

In 2016, in GWS, 82.4% of children aged 4-12 years lived at the same address as one year ago but

only 46.0% lived at the same address as five years ago. Children who had changed address had

generally had an address elsewhere in Australia with fewer children having lived elsewhere in

Australia one year ago (11.8%) than five years ago (32.5%). A total of 4,169 (1.4%) of children aged 4-

12 years had lived overseas one year ago and 5.6% (16,330 children) had lived overseas 5 years ago.

The 11.8% whose usual address five years ago was not applicable were those who were 4 years old

and therefore not yet born on the date of the previous census.

This data shows how mobile families can be. Although the majority had not moved in the previous

year, more than half had a different address five years ago. This mobility could be linked to more

families renting rather than buying dwellings. This could make tenure less permanent, leading to

mobility by necessity rather than by choice. Additional data by LGA is available from WESTIR by

request.

Figure 6: Place of usual residence one and five years ago, children 4-12 years, GWS, 2016


Educational Institute Attending In 2016, almost half (47.9% or 139,539 persons) of all children in GWS aged 4-12 years, were

attending a Government Infants or Primary School. This was a lower proportion than Greater Sydney

(48.7%), Rest of NSW (50.1%) and NSW (49.2%). A further 14.6% (42,470 persons) were attending a

Catholic Infants/Primary School and 8.0% (23,252 persons) were attending an ‘Other Non-

Government’ Infants/Primary School. The proportion of 4-12 years olds attending Secondary School

was very small due to most children turning 12 or 13 as they enter secondary schooling. Preschool

was attended by 9.6% (27,843 persons) of 4-12-year-olds. Only 4.4% of 4-12-year-olds in GWS were

not attending an educational institute. Within this category all were aged 4 or 5 years, mostly 4

years.

Blue Mountains and Parramatta had the highest proportion of children attending preschool (11.1%

each) followed by Hawkesbury (10.8%) and Camden (10.6%). ABS warn that some of these children

may have been attending day-care rather than preschool. Fairfield had the lowest proportion of

preschool attendance (8.0%) followed by Liverpool (8.5%).

In GWS, the LGA with the largest proportion of children attending a Government Infants/Primary

school was Parramatta (53.1%) and the one with the lowest proportion was Canterbury- Bankstown

(425.4%). However, Parramatta also had the lowest proportion of children attending and Other Non-

government Infants/Primary School (3.8%) and Canterbury-Bankstown had the highest (10.7%).

Cumberland had the highest proportion of children attending a Catholic Infants/Primary School

(16.6%) and Campbelltown (10.0%) had the lowest.

Very few children aged 12 years or under were attending secondary school due to their age. Fairfield

had the highest proportion of children attending Government Secondary School (6.1%) and Camden

and The Hills Shire had the lowest (3.3%). Camden and Penrith also had the highest proportion of

children attending a Catholic High School (2.4%). The Hills Shire had the highest proportion of

children attending an ‘Other’ Non-Government Secondary school (1.7%).

Outside GWS, Lithgow children aged 4-12 years were more likely to attend Government schools in

both Infants/Primary and Secondary School but the proportion attending a Catholic Infants/Primary

school (14.0%) was also quite high. Wingecarribee had a lower proportion of children attending

Government schools for Infants/Primary (48.0%) and Secondary (2.8%) but a higher proportion of

children in Other Non-government Infants/Primary (13.2%) than all other LGAs and regions. The

proportion of Wingecarribee children attending Other Non-government Secondary schools (1.5%)

was lower than The Hills Shire (1.7%) but higher than all other LGAs and regions.

The ABS provide a category of Other and Not Stated for people who either do not answer the

question or are not attending any of the institutes on the census household form. However, the ABS

do not specify what type of attendances may be included within ‘other’. As the total number of GWS

children in the table “Educational Institution Attending” (Table 16) is almost the same as the total

population of children in GWS, an assumption may be made that this would include home schooling,

disability services or some other form of facility.

GWS did not vary greatly from Greater Sydney or NSW in the proportion of children attending

government, catholic or non-government schools. However, the proportion of children attending

preschool in GWS (9.6%) was slightly lower than Greater Sydney (10.2%) and NSW (10.5%). The

proportion of children not attending an educational institute was higher in GWS (4.4%) than Greater

Sydney (3.9%) and NSW (3.6%). See Table 16 for more details.

Table 16: Educational Institution attended, children 4-12 years, Selected Regions, 2016

Source: ABS Census 2016, Table Builder Pro

No % No % No % No % No % No % No % No % No %

Blacktown 22,462 48.6% 6,929 15.0% 3,405 7.4% 1,887 4.1% 958 2.1% 416 0.9% 3,657 7.9% 4,389 9.5% 2,146 4.6% 46,249

Blue Mountains 4,556 51.3% 1,020 11.5% 944 10.6% 355 4.0% 126 1.4% 99 1.1% 514 5.8% 982 11.1% 280 3.2% 8,876

Camden 5,319 47.7% 1,835 16.5% 1,013 9.1% 363 3.3% 266 2.4% 99 0.9% 639 5.7% 1,184 10.6% 432 3.9% 11,150

Campbelltown 10,778 52.6% 2,041 10.0% 1,501 7.3% 935 4.6% 340 1.7% 160 0.8% 1,918 9.4% 1,825 8.9% 977 4.8% 20,475

Canterbury-Bankstown 18,108 42.4% 6,883 16.1% 4,569 10.7% 1,858 4.3% 873 2.0% 550 1.3% 4,155 9.7% 3,765 8.8% 1,992 4.7% 42,753

Cumberland 11,602 44.4% 4,342 16.6% 1,970 7.5% 1,063 4.1% 555 2.1% 221 0.8% 2,577 9.9% 2,381 9.1% 1,446 5.5% 26,157

Fairfield 11,284 49.0% 3,448 15.0% 929 4.0% 1,415 6.1% 420 1.8% 117 0.5% 2,528 11.0% 1,838 8.0% 1,034 4.5% 23,013

Hawkesbury 3,960 50.4% 1,036 13.2% 659 8.4% 273 3.5% 170 2.2% 118 1.5% 522 6.6% 851 10.8% 267 3.4% 7,856

Lithgow 1,126 51.8% 303 14.0% 45 2.1% 95 4.4% 25 1.2% 7 0.3% 273 12.6% 212 9.8% 86 4.0% 2,172

Liverpool 12,240 43.8% 4,073 14.6% 2,785 10.0% 1,232 4.4% 621 2.2% 389 1.4% 2,919 10.4% 2,390 8.5% 1,317 4.7% 27,966

Parramatta 12,737 53.1% 3,170 13.2% 912 3.8% 1,016 4.2% 415 1.7% 168 0.7% 1,700 7.1% 2,655 11.1% 1,208 5.0% 23,981

Penrith 12,296 49.7% 3,623 14.7% 1,802 7.3% 918 3.7% 583 2.4% 211 0.9% 1,743 7.1% 2,587 10.5% 958 3.9% 24,721

The Hills Shire 10,697 49.7% 3,305 15.4% 2,162 10.1% 713 3.3% 405 1.9% 369 1.7% 895 4.2% 2,266 10.5% 690 3.2% 21,502

Wingecarribee 2,517 48.0% 639 12.2% 694 13.2% 146 2.8% 99 1.9% 79 1.5% 405 7.7% 545 10.4% 121 2.3% 5,245

Wollondilly 3,500 52.5% 765 11.5% 601 9.0% 248 3.7% 119 1.8% 83 1.2% 431 6.5% 730 11.0% 184 2.8% 6,661

GWS (13 LGAs) 139,539 47.9% 42,470 14.6% 23,252 8.0% 12,276 4.2% 5,851 2.0% 3,000 1.0% 24,198 8.3% 27,843 9.6% 12,931 4.4% 291,360

FACS - WS District 79,436 49.2% 23,728 14.7% 11,899 7.4% 6,320 3.9% 3,237 2.0% 1,609 1.0% 11,881 7.4% 16,323 10.1% 7,081 4.4% 161,514

FACS - SWS District 63,746 46.4% 19,684 14.3% 12,092 8.8% 6,197 4.5% 2,738 2.0% 1,477 1.1% 12,995 9.5% 12,277 8.9% 6,057 4.4% 137,263

Greater Sydney 264,340 48.7% 76,667 14.1% 47,251 8.7% 20,681 3.8% 10,371 1.9% 7,145 1.3% 39,938 7.4% 55,679 10.2% 21,246 3.9% 543,318

Rest of NSW 149,833 50.1% 44,302 14.8% 19,486 6.5% 11,199 3.7% 4,045 1.4% 2,327 0.8% 25,609 8.6% 32,998 11.0% 9,480 3.2% 299,279

NSW 414,175 49.2% 120,970 14.4% 66,739 7.9% 31,878 3.8% 14,412 1.7% 9,468 1.1% 65,547 7.8% 88,676 10.5% 30,725 3.6% 842,590

Other/Not

statedPreschool

Not attending an

educational

institute*

Total 4-12

year olds

Type of Educational Institution Attending, selected regions, children 4-12 years, 2016

Region Government Catholic Other Non Govt. Government CatholicOther Non

Govt.

Infants/Primary Secondary

Home schooling The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) provides data related to home schooling. The latest

documents are available online 5. The following data and information comes from “Home Schooling

Data reports relating to 2018” – released March 2019.

The number of children registered for home schooling in NSW increased from 3,298 in 2014 to 5,429

in 2018. The total number of children aged 5-12 years of age who were registered for home

schooling in NSW as at December 2018 was 3,557; the youngest age of registration allowed being

five years. As at 31 December 2018, 31.2% of these registered children lived in the Sydney West

Region, a region which “includes sections of the Blue Mountains and areas west of the CBD bordered

by Ryde and Hornsby in the north and Hurstville and Heathcote in the south”3. This region is

different to GWS but gives a better approximation of the number of home-schooled children in GWS

than the total NSW figure. The proportion of boys and girls was close to even with boys making up

just over 50% of registered children in 2016-2018.

Figure 7: Number of registered home-schooled children, Australia, 2014-2018

Source: NSW Education Standards Authority, 2019 Note: The number of registered children includes children who have exemption from registration.

The reason for seeking home schooling registration is an optional field in the application, which

prevents a full analysis of why parents choose to home school. The available data in the 2019 data

report shows the most common reason in 2018 to be ‘special learning needs’ (24.6%) and

‘philosophical’ (23.6%). A nil response was provided by 18.0% of parents and the ‘other’ category by

27.4%. Bullying was the reason in 0.4% of application and religion in 6.1% of applications.

In 2018, only 193 registered children participated in NAPLAN, which is conducted for children in

years 3, 5, 7, and 9 which is only 10% of children eligible to sit NAPLAN. This was lower than the

previous year for all children although the number of Year 5 children participating increased. The

number of Certificates of Completion of Year 10 approved in 2018 was 154, an increase from 83 in

5 https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/regulation/home-schooling/home-schooling-registration

2014. In the period 2014-2018, only six applications for a Certificate of Completion of Year 10 by

home-schooled children were refused.

Figure 8: Number of home schooled children participating in NAPLAN, Australia, 2014-2018

Source: NSW Education Standards Authority, 2019 Note: The number of registered children includes children who have exemption from registration.

Given the increasing numbers of home-schooled children, it is surprising that the amount of data

and the means of comparing home-schooled children to those in mainstream schooling is lacking. A

report in 2014 produced by the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW and titled

“Academic Outcomes of Home Schooling - Review of Research and Analysis of Statewide Tests”6,

stated there was no strong evidence to indicate substantially different academic outcomes for home

schooled students (either better or worse outcomes) due to the “paucity of research evidence on

the academic outcomes of home schooled students”.

David Roy queried why more parents are choosing to home school in his 2016 article for The

Conversation 7. While he reiterated the findings of the above study, he also raised funding issues.

The money allocated per child in the public system ($15,450 per child at the time) cannot be

accessed by a school or the parents when a child is home-schooled. With these funds unavailable

and increasing numbers of children leaving the education system, he flags this as a potential

problem in the future.

Home schooling is currently an increasing trend and although the numbers at this stage are still only

small (3,557 of 5-12-year-olds in 2018), this is clearly an important issue for those children and their

families. Although the most common reason given for home schooling was ‘philosophical’ and many

parents gave no reason at all, the increasing number of children being home schooled indicates that

the current school system is failing to meet the needs or expectations of these children.

6 https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/8b9170fe-c90e-49d0-b62b-7cc18fe222cc/home-schooling-outcomes-review.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID= 7 http://theconversation.com/more-parents-are-choosing-to-home-school-their-children-why-60787

Childcare Parents who work or have other commitments need to access childcare. This may be formal or

informal care provided by family, friends or registered providers for varying numbers of hours and

days. It is impossible to capture data for all types of childcare. The ABS census records unpaid

childcare and the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) releases annual

data on approved childcare each year.

Approved Childcare Services The ACECQA data provides the number of approved services, the number of childcare places and

includes a rating that indicates the level the service is meeting the National Quality Standards (NQS)

for childcare. The types of services covered by the data for 30 June 2019 were Centre-based care or

Family Day Care with the sub types8.

• Long Day Care Centres

• Outside School Hours Care

• Preschool/Kindergarten Care

• Family Day Care

In GWS there were 1,146 Long Day Care Centres which provided a maximum of 58,825 places. These

centres may also have provided Out of School Hours Care (OSHC). Some centres had more than 100

places and others were small creating an average size of 51 places. Out of School Hours Care was

provided by 428 centres with 31,599 places. A further 173 centres provided care as Preschools or

Kindergartens with a further maximum of 6,398 places. See Table 17

Table 17: Number and type of Childcare Services, GWS, 2019

Source: ACECQA - National Quality Standard Data as at 30 June 2019

The management type for the providers included Independent, Catholic and Government schools,

Local Government, Private for Profit, and Private Not for Profit Organisations. Each service is

assessed against the 7 Quality Areas of the NQS and their standards and elements. The results of the

assessment provide an overall rating which may be Excellent, Exceeding NQS, Meeting NQS, Working

Towards NQS or Significant Improvement required. There were also services with no final report or

rating. The data also provides the names and contact details for each service, but only the totals for

GWS have been used in this paper. Further information on the NQS can be found online at

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/ including a search function by name, keyword or postcode.

The following tables are based on the National Quality Standard Data as at 30 June 2019 released on

8 August 2019. The data shows the number and type of operators, the number of childcare places in

8 https://www.acecqa.gov.au/

Long Day

Care

Out of School

Hours Care

Preschool

Kindergarten

Number of services 1,146 428 173

Number of places 58,825 31,599 6,398

Average size 51 60 40

Median size 43 74 37

Childcare by number & type of Services, GWS, as at 30 June

2019

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/

GWS (13 LGAs) and the number of services within each rating category. Private for Profit services

were the most common for Long Day Care (LDC) and Out of School Hours care. Private Not for Profit

– community managed centres were the most common for Preschool. Most services were either

meeting or exceeding the NQS, but quite a few were still working towards meeting the NQS. The

number of services needing significant improvement to meet the standards was very small, with only

2 LDC and 1 OSHC in this category. There were also centres that had no final report or rating listed.

Table 18: Long Day Care Services by Management type and NQS rating, GWS, 2019


Table 19: Outside of school hours care services by Management type and NQS rating, GWS, 2019


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Catholic Schools - - 1 2 - - 3

Independent Schools 3 - 1 1 - - 5

Private for Profit 145 - 392 309 2 68 916

Private NFP Community Managed 24 1 24 17 - - 66

Private NFP Other Organisation 17 - 29 9 - 3 58

State/Territory & Local Govt. Managed 48 1 42 7 - - 98

State/Terrritory Government school - - - - - - -

Total 237 2 489 345 2 71 1,146

Long Day Care Services by overall NQS rating, GWS, 30 June 2019

NQS Rating

Approved Services Provider Management

Type

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Independent Schools 2 0 6 7 0 0 15

Private for Profit 25 1 76 118 1 18 239

Private NFP Community Managed 17 0 46 46 0 6 115

Private NFP Other Org. 2 0 10 13 0 7 32

State/Territory & Local Govt. Managed 11 0 13 1 0 1 26

State/Terrritory Government school 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Total 57 1 151 186 1 32 428

NQS Rating

Outside of school hours care services by overall rating, GWS, 30 June 2019

Table 20: Preschool Kindergarten Services by Management Type and NQS rating, GWS, 2018


AEDC – Australian Early Development Census The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) is a national measurement that monitors children’s

development. Data collection commenced after the Australian Government rolled out the Australian

Early Development Index (AEDI) in 2009. The data collected relates to children the year they start

school and covers five important areas of early childhood development:

• Physical health and wellbeing

• Social competence

• Emotional maturity

• Language and cognitive skills (school-based)

• Communication skills and general knowledge

The AEDI was renamed the AEDC in 2014 and is held every three years. The AEDI/AEDC has been

held in 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018, which creates a dataset that provides an indication of national

progress in the development of Australian children 9.

The AEDC data has been presented in two forms in this section. The graph shows the proportion of

children for each of the four censuses by SA2 of GWS who were vulnerable in two or more domains.

This graph illustrates how the proportion has changed over the years with some SA2s experiencing a

decrease in the proportion of children but others showing an increase. Between 2009 and 2018, the

proportion of children vulnerable on two or more domains decreased in some SA2s, such as

Blacktown North, Auburn, Lithgow-Mudgee and Carlingford. However, the proportion increased in

some SA2s with Rouse Hill-McGraths Hill increasing from 2.9% to 7.7% and Blue Mountains

increasing from 5.3% to 7.8%. The data also shows great variation in the years between.

Map 1 also illustrates the 2018 data by mapping the proportion of children vulnerable in two or

more domains by ranges and for a slightly smaller area. This clearly shows the areas with higher

proportions of vulnerable children in their population. The red areas are the highest proportions and

9 https://www.aedc.gov.au/about-the-aedc/why-the-aedc-is-important

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Independent Schools 1 2 0 3

Private for Profit 4 7 7 18

Private NFP Community managed 37 35 7 1 80

Private NFP Other Organisation 6 6 2 14

State/Territory & Local Govt. Managed 9 3 0 12

State/Territory Government Schools 33 1 10 2 46

Total 90 1 63 18 1 173

Preschool Kindergarten Services by overall rating, GWS, 30 June 2019

NQS Rating

NQS Rating

the light-yellow areas are the lowest proportions. More information about the AEDC and specific

area data is available online at https://www.aedc.gov.au/ or contact WESTIR for more information.

Figure 9: AEDC – proportion of children vulnerable on 2+ domains, GWS SA@s, 2009-2018

Source: AEDC data 2019

https://www.aedc.gov.au/

Map 5: AEDC 2018, Proportion of children vulnerable in two or more domains, GWS

Out of Home Care Out of Home Care (OOHC) is included in this paper as it is very relevant to the lives of many children.

However, it is beyond the scope of this paper to cover all aspects, policies, research and outcomes

for children. The data shows age ranges, but not the 4-12-year range of this paper. Therefore, all

ages 0-17 years are shown. This section is intended to introduce and outline some of the issues

relating to OOHC and provide general figures, rather than detail or analyse what is a particularly

important and emotive issue for those involved. More information on policies is available from

Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) (formerly FACS) and various research units, such as

AIFS, provide access to many papers and other resources relating to children in OOHC.

There are times when children are unable to live with their parent/s and need to be placed in OOHC.

There are five types of OOHC: Immediate or crisis care, Respite care, Short to medium-term care,

Long-term or permanent care, and Relative or kinship care 10. A child may enter care due to:

• The Children’s Court making an order (Statutory OOHC)

• FACS deciding a child is in need of care but without a court order (Supported OOHC)

• A voluntary arrangement, made between parents and a designated agency registered with

the NSW Children’s Guardian (Voluntary OOHC)

AIFS produced a resource sheet “Children in Care” in September 2018, which gave a snapshot of

children in OOHC during the 2016/17 financial year11. This publication stated there were 47,915

children living in OOHC in Australia as at 30 June 2017. Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

children make up 5.5% of all children aged 0-17 years, they made up 36.9% of children placed in

OOHC in 2016/17. Table 21 below shows the number of children who entered care in 2016/2017 by

state and age. The majority (69.9%) of children enter care when they are under the age of 10 years.

Care continues until either the child reaches the age of 18 years or when a court order expires.

Table 21: Children admitted to OOHC during 2016/17

Notes: The table includes all children admitted to OOHC for the first time, as well as those children returning to care who had exited care

60 days or more previously. Children admitted to OOHC more than once during the year were only counted at the first admission.

Percentages in the table may not add exactly to 100.0% due to rounding.

Source: AIHW, 2018b, Table S52.

10 https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/families/out-of-home-care/about-out-of-home-care/care-types 11 https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/children-care

Age (years) NSW Vic. Qld WA SA Tas. ACT NT Total

< 1 657 601 456 224 185 44 32 52 2,251

1–4 785 1,007 595 291 177 65 43 69 3,032

5–9 678 918 582 265 174 47 53 78 2,795

10–14 534 899 517 213 132 42 49 80 2,466

15–17 193 355 272 90 56 10 19 17 1,012

Unknown 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Total 2,848 3,780 2,422 1,083 724 208 196 296 11,557

< 1 23.1 15.9 18.8 20.7 25.5 21.1 16.3 17.6 19.5

1–4 27.6 26.6 24.6 26.9 24.4 31.2 21.9 23.3 26.2

5–9 23.8 24.3 24 24.5 24 22.6 27 26.3 24.2

10–14 18.8 23.8 21.3 19.7 18.2 20.2 25 27 21.3

15–17 6.8 9.4 11.2 8.3 7.7 4.8 9.7 5.7 8.8

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Children admitted to OOHC by age group, states and territories, during 2016/17

Percentage

In 2016/17, 95.5% of children in OOHC in NSW were in home-based care, with 44.1% in Foster Care

and 51.4% in Relative/kin care. Another 3.4% were in Residential care, 0.4% in Family Group Homes,

0.4% in Independent Living and 0.6% in Other/unknown care.

The number of children in OOHC has risen each year from 2015 onwards, but the rate per 1,000

children fluctuated. In 2017, there were 17,879 (10.3 per 1,000 NSW children age 0-17 years) in

OOHC (see Table 22).

Table 22: Trends in children aged 0-17 years in OOHC, NSW 30 June 2013- 30 June 2017

Note: (a) NSW data at 30 June 2015 onwards are not comparable with previous years’ data. NSW Safe Home for Life (SHFL) legislative

reforms, effective 29 October 2014, transitioned eligible children/young people to the independent care of their guardian. These

children/young people exited and are no longer counted in OOHC.

Source: AIHW, 2018b, Table S55

Although OOHC is designed to protect children, it is also acknowledged that children in care face

many challenges such as placement stability, inappropriate placement, separation from siblings,

transition from care, greater risks of abuse and poorer quality of life12. AIFS quoted one study of 77

young people in OOHC from Victoria and Western Australia, in which 40% of children had been in

2-5 placements, 14% in 6-10 placements and 32% in more than 11 placements. This left only 14%

with an experience of stability. Another study found 35% of their respondents had 5 or more

caseworkers during their time in OOHC. Instability can be associated with poor educational,

employment, social and psychological outcomes, as well as behavioural and emotional problems.

Instability can also affect a child’s capacity to develop and maintain relationships.

Health NSW states that “Children and young people in out of home care (OOHC) often have high and

unmet health needs and are more disadvantaged and vulnerable than other children”13. To

counteract this, Health NSW has developed the OOHC Health Pathway program which aims to

identify health and wellbeing issues in children in OOHC and provide early intervention to improve

outcomes for these children. One of these issues could be mental health problems. Family

breakdown was found to be one factor linked to mental illness of children in the Mental Health

chapter of this document. As stated above, educational outcomes can also be adversely impacted

when a child enters OOHC. To counter this, the OOHC Change Funding model has been developed to

provide funding to assist children entering, or in, statutory OOHC14.

Although there are many reasons why a child needs to be removed from their family, OOHC itself

may not always be the perfect solution. Family Matters states that in 2017-18, only 17% of the

overall child protection funding was invested in support services for children and their families, with

12 https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/children-care 13 https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/kidsfamilies/MCFhealth/Pages/OOHCH-Program.aspx 14 https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/child-protection/out-of-home-care

Year NSW(a) Year NSW(a)

2013 17,422 2013 10.4

2014 18,192 2014 10.8

2015 16,843 2015 9.9

2016 17,800 2016 10.4

2017 17,879 2017 10.3

Trends in children aged 0–17 years in OOHC, NSW, 30 June 2013 to

30 June 2017

Number Number per 1,000 children

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/kidsfamilies/MCFhealth/Pages/OOHCH-Program.aspx

the remaining 83% being invested in child protection services 15. It may well be that early

intervention regarding child protection needs to commence well before the birth of a child to ensure

that parents are well equipped with life skills prior to becoming a parent.

15 https://www.familymatters.org.au/the-issue/

Core Activity Need for Assistance Questions relating to people’s need for assistance were introduced in the 2006 Census to measure

the number of people with a profound or severe disability. There are three areas of need for

assistance - self-care, mobility and communication. The reason for assistance needs to be a long-

term health condition or disability (lasting six months or more), or old age.

Table 23 below shows that the number and proportion of children aged 4-12 years in GWS who

needed assistance was quite small (3.1%). However, this ranged from 2.0% in The Hills Shire to 4.7%

in Campbelltown. A total of 9,017 children in GWS aged 4-12 years had need for assistance, which

was 3.1% of children in this age range, compared to 2.7% in Greater Sydney, 3.7% in the Rest of NSW

and 3.1% for NSW.

The outer LGAs of Lithgow and Wingecarribee both had a higher proportion of children aged 4-12

years in need of assistance than GWS, with 5.0% and 3.2% respectively. Lithgow also had a very high

proportion of children in the Not Stated category (10.4%). A high not stated response is often

associated with populations with large numbers of persons born overseas who may either not

understand the question or be unwilling to divulge the information for various reasons, including not

trusting the government after bad experiences in the past. Lithgow does not have a large CALD

population so the reasons for non-disclosure are less clear.

Table 23: Core Activity, need for assistance, 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016


No. % No. % No. %

Blacktown 1,550 3.4% 42,239 91.3% 2,472 5.3% 46,246

Blue Mountains 406 4.6% 8,100 91.3% 370 4.2% 8,869

Camden 451 4.0% 10,224 91.7% 471 4.2% 11,145

Campbelltown 972 4.7% 18,202 88.9% 1,304 6.4% 20,482


Cumberland 586 2.2% 24,041 91.9% 1,541 5.9% 26,162

Fairfield 552 2.4% 21,186 92.1% 1,287 5.6% 23,001

Hawkesbury 309 3.9% 7,186 91.4% 358 4.6% 7,861

Lithgow 109 5.0% 1,848 85.2% 225 10.4% 2,170

Liverpool 811 2.9% 25,223 90.2% 1,914 6.8% 27,969

Parramatta 512 2.1% 22,281 92.9% 1,186 4.9% 23,981

Penrith 1,073 4.3% 22,374 90.6% 1,269 5.1% 24,705

The Hills Shire 420 2.0% 20,521 95.4% 567 2.6% 21,517

Wingecarribee 170 3.2% 4,749 90.5% 337 6.4% 5,246

Wollondilly 267 4.0% 6,076 91.2% 309 4.6% 6,660

GWS 9,017 3.1% 266,592 91.5% 15,750 5.4% 291,344

DCJ - WS District 4,965 3.1% 148,590 92.0% 7,988 4.9% 161,511

DCJ - SWS District 4,331 3.2% 124,599 90.8% 8,324 6.1% 137,249

Greater Sydney 14,593 2.7% 501,199 92.2% 27,517 5.1% 543,326

Rest of NSW 11,206 3.7% 268,838 89.8% 19,223 6.4% 299,262

NSW 25,802 3.1% 770,053 91.4% 46,741 5.5% 842,591

Has need for

assistance with core

activities

Does not have need

for assistance with

core activities

Not stated

Core Activity, Need for assistance, 4-12 years, selected regions, 2016

RegionTotal 4-12

years

Childhood Health

Mental Health In 2013-14, a national survey “Young Minds Matter: The Second Australian Child and Adolescent

Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing” was conducted. A total of 6,310 families with children and

adolescents aged 4-17 years were surveyed using funding from the Australian Government

Department of Health. Reports giving overviews and detailed findings can be found online16. The

following data and findings all come from these reports. The respondents were split into two age

ranges, 4-11 years (3,334 respondents) and 12-17 years (2,976 respondents). Most families were

families with two parents or carers (80.2%), including original, step, blended and other families.

19.8% were families with one parent or carer. Details relating to family functioning, income, level of

parent or carer education, labour force status, area of residence (capital city or rest of state), child

and parent/carer country of birth, housing tenure and relative socio-economic disadvantage were

also collected. These variables were then cross tabulated by prevalence and type of mental disorder

and the child’s NAPLAN results if parents gave permission. This created a full picture of the lives of

the children in the study and which factors may relate to the mental health of children, which in

turn, impacts their ability to learn.

Some of the findings were:

• Mental disorders affected 1 in 7 school students, with a higher prevalence in males than

females.

• Students with mental disorders had more school absences than students without a mental

disorder.

• Children with a mental disorder had lower NAPLAN scores.

• The most common principal condition for 4-11-year-olds was ADHD (6.3%) followed by

Separation Anxiety (3.8%) and Conduct Disorder (1.0%).

• Major depressive disorder was much rarer in 4-11-year-olds (0.6%) than 12-17 year-olds

(3.8%).

• Mental disorders were common in families who were also experiencing unemployment, or

family breakdown.

• Mental disorders were more common in children living in rented public housing than other

tenure types.

• Mental disorders were more common in children from families in the lowest quintile or most

disadvantaged in the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage.

• Mental disorders increased in severity with age.

Many of the factors related to increased prevalence of mental disorders are associated with low

incomes, unemployment, family breakdown and renting public housing. If these factors are

contributing to mental illness in children, then it would make good policy sense to increase funding

for projects that help families through these difficult times. Children living in poverty could also be

helped by raising the Newstart Allowance and ensuring that the conditions imposed on the single

parent payment are not so onerous that they cannot be met, causing the benefit recipient to be

breached and lose their payment. The problem of single parents having to forgo work opportunities

to attend compulsory interviews related to receiving the single parent benefit can be read about in

WESTIR’s “Young Mothers in Western Sydney” paper. 17

16 https://youngmindsmatter.telethonkids.org.au/ 17 https://www.westir.org.au/new/images/YMGWS.pdf

Immunisation Australia commenced widespread vaccination in 1932 with major campaigns following in the 1950s,

1960s and 1970s. This has in turn, reduced the number of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs)

occurring in the population and therefore, the number of deaths related to VPDs 18. The National

Immunisation Program (NIP) funds 19 vaccines for eligible people with routine vaccination

commencing at birth and other vaccines provided for people at risk, such as the influenza

vaccination for pregnant women and the elderly. A high proportion of the population needs to be

vaccinated for immunisation to be effective and is known as ‘herd immunity’17. The Australian

government has an aspirational target of 95% childhood vaccination by the age of five years. This has

been achieved for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children but not for all children. The table

below shows that the rate of fully immunised children in GWS in 2018 varied from a high of 96.9% in

Camden, to a low of 93.1% in Parramatta. This compares to Australia with 94.7%, NSW with 94.6%,

Greater Sydney with 94.0% and the Rest of NSW with 95.8%. Lithgow and Wollondilly, on the

outskirts of GWS, had rates of 97.1% and 97.7% respectively.

Table 24: Children fully immunised at 5 years of age, selected regions, 2018

Source: PHIDU Social Health Atlas of Australia 2019

From 1 January 2018, children must be fully vaccinated to attend childcare. A child who is not

vaccinated, due to medical reasons, or is on a catch-up program, can still be enrolled with an

appropriate form signed by a medical practitioner, but may be excluded from pre-school upon an

outbreak of disease to protect themselves and others from infection. At a national level, for parents

18 https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/8eb941be-9137-47b3-80d2-a0919424b2dc/aihw-phe-236_Aust.pdf.aspx

Name

Children fully

immunised at 5

years of age

Children

registered at 5

years of age

% children fully

immunised at 5

years of age

Blacktown 5,961 6,243 95.5

Blue Mountains 886 951 93.2

Camden 1,505 1,553 96.9

Campbelltown (NSW) 2,563 2,690 95.3

Canterbury-Bankstown 5,049 5,370 94.0

Cumberland 3,274 3,530 92.7

Fairfield 2,737 2,908 94.1

Hawkesbury 833 864 96.4

Lithgow 237 244 97.1

Liverpool 3,342 3,510 95.2

Parramatta 3,296 3,539 93.1

Penrith 3,079 3,186 96.6

The Hills Shire 2,480 2,622 94.6

Wingecarribee 500 530 94.2

Wollondilly 693 709 97.7

AUSTRALIA+ 306,580 323,859 94.7

Greater Capital Cities 207,799 220,208 94.4

Rest of States/ NT 97,260 102,021 95.3

Greater Capital Cities and Major Urban Centres++ 230,026 243,497 94.5

Rest of States/ NT excluding Major Urban Centres++ 75,033 78,732 95.3

New South Wales 97,477 103,067 94.6

Greater Sydney 64,447 68,587 94.0

Rest of New South Wales 33,030 34,480 95.8

Children fully immunised at 5 years of age, Selected Regions, 2018

to receive a range of child related social security benefits, a child must be fully immunised for their

age. Although some exemptions exist, vaccine objection is not one of them 19. These changes were

made to ensure ‘herd immunity’ rates were maintained.

The ramifications of low immunisation rates have been witnessed in Samoa where 81 people,

predominantly children aged under 4 years, had died as at 26 December 2019, in a measles epidemic

lasting from September 2019 onwards20. Samoa declared a State of Emergency to halt the spread of

disease, while undertaking a vaccination drive which pushed vaccination rates towards 95%. In 2018

only 31% of children under five in Samoa had been immunised. This was the result of two children

dying after receiving a measles vaccine and a subsequent anti-vaccine campaign. However, it was

later proven that the vaccine had been incorrectly prepared 21. The six-week State of Emergency,

which restricted travel, shut schools, and made vaccination compulsory, was lifted at the end of

December 2019. There had been no fatalities in the preceding four days, but 21 new cases had been

reported in the previous 24 hours and 46 people remained in hospital, including 9 children and one

pregnant woman in critical condition 22. The slowing of infection and death was attributed to the

population reaching a herd immunity level of almost 95% immunisation rate, but only after 5,655

measles cases were reported (in a population of only 200,000 people), plus 1,844 admissions to

hospital and 81 deaths.

Hospital Admissions for Myringotomy (Gromets) The PHIDU Social Health Atlas includes separate figures for myringotomy which indicates how

common this procedure is for young children. The government health site states that “Grommets

might be recommended if you or your child has had repeated ear infections complicated by glue ear

for at least 3 months. This may have lead (sic) to trouble hearing, balance problems or ongoing

irritability”23.

Myringotomy is a procedure performed under general anaesthetic to drain fluid from the middle

ear. A small incision is made, fluid is removed and then gromets (small ventilation tubes), are

inserted to allow air into the middle ear preventing a further build-up of fluid and recurrent

infection. Middle ear infections which create a build-up of fluid are often referred to as glue ear.24

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network warns – “The hearing loss, which occurs with fluid in the ear

(‘glue ear’), may affect your child's speech development, their understanding of language, and

possibly their reading and spelling” 25. Treating glue ear early would be the best option to prevent

this occurring. The Social Health Atlas publishes the number of admissions for myringotomy in public

and private hospitals by LGA. This table shows that apart from Lithgow, more procedures are

performed in private hospitals than public hospitals. Camden had the highest Indirectly age-

standardised rate (ASR) per 100,000 population (1,699 ASR), followed by Wollondilly (1,382 ASR) and

Hawkesbury (1,149 ASR). The lowest ASR per 100,000 was in Fairfield (352 ASR), Cumberland (425

19 http://www.ncirs.org.au/public/no-jab-no-play-no-jab-no-pay 20 https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/406223/81-measles-deaths-now-in-samoa 21 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/28/samoa-measles-outbreak-who-blames-anti-vaccine-scare-death-toll 22 https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/samoa-ends-emergency-from-deadly-measles-outbreak-20191229-p53nf8.html 23 https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/grommets 24 https://www.childrens.health.qld.gov.au/fact-sheet-insertion-of-grommets/ 25 https://www.schn.health.nsw.gov.au/fact-sheets/ears-glue-ear-and-grommets

ASR) and Parramatta (572 ASR). An indirect age standardised rate is when “the age-specific rates

from a standard population are applied to the age distribution of the study population”26.

Table 25: Number of admissions for myringotomy, 0-9 years, selected regions, 2016-17

Source: PHIDU Social Health Atlas of Australia 2019

According to Amanda Leach 27, Indigenous children are at a significantly higher risk of middle ear

infections that cause hearing loss than non-Indigenous children. The longer an infection is left

untreated, the higher the risk of hearing loss. It was estimated in one report, quoted in Leach’s

article, that 12% to 46% of Indigenous children have chronic middle ear infections and in remote

areas, up to 90% of Indigenous children will have some form of middle ear infection.

26 https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/95237794-4b77-4683-9f00-77c4d33e0e7c/13406.pdf.aspx?inline=true 27 https://theconversation.com/bulging-ear-drums-and-hearing-loss-aboriginal-kids-have-the-highest-otitis-media-rates-in-the-world-64165

Number

ASR per

100,000 Number

ASR per

100,000 Number

ASR per

100,000

Blacktown 118 209 292 515 410 723

Blue Mountains 29 305 45 483 74 786

Camden 35 256 195 1,415 230 1,669

Campbelltown 84 347 129 530 213 875

Canterbury-Bankstown 110 210 204 389 314 598

Cumberland 53 157 93 269 146 425

Fairfield 40 153 52 199 92 352

Hawkesbury 28 316 74 837 103 1,149

Lithgow 16 646 8 303 24 947

Liverpool 78 236 163 491 242 725

Parramatta 30 92 160 480 191 572

Penrith 144 479 158 522 302 998

The Hills Shire 26 117 210 966 236 1,074

Wingecarribee 17 309 39 727 56 1,032

Wollondilly 29 398 71 989 100 1,382

AUSTRALIA+ n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 33,377 1,063

New South Wales 2,840 285 7,073 710 9,913 992

Greater Sydney 1,294 197 4,818 731 6,112 926

Rest of New South Wales 1,546 454 2,255 669 3,801 1,121

Public hospitals Private hospitals All hospitals

Admissions for myringotomy (surgical incision of the eardrum), children 0-9 years, Selected Regions,

2016/17

Name

Child Deaths Child deaths are relatively rare in modern Australia. Higher numbers of children die before the age of

one year, but numbers drop significantly after a child reaches their first birthday. Several agencies

report on child deaths using different age ranges and criteria for date of registration of death, and

cause of death. This means the data in this section, extracted from two ABS publications and the

Child Death Review Team, cannot be directly compared. As with other sections in this paper, the

information presented is not meant to be a complete definitive report, but rather commentary on

the subject to generate discussion and contribute to policies designed to improve outcomes for

young children.

Each year, the ABS releases ‘Causes of death’, a publication recording deaths in Australia and each of

the states and territories. In 2018, there was a total of 294 deaths of children under 1 year of age

and 134 deaths of children aged 1-14 years. The following table which comes from this release lists

the ten most common causes of death28. The ABS caution that 2018 death data preliminary and is

open to a review process.

Table 26: Selected underlying causes of death by age at death, NSW, 2018

np - not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated. *Age specific death rate - Per 100,000 population

Source: ABS Cat. 3303.0, Table 2.3

The Child Death Review Team (CDRT) also releases an annual report which reports on the most

common cause of death for children. The CDRT is responsible for investigating the deaths of children

and identify any contributing factors to the death that may have been prevented. They then make

recommendations to help reduce deaths in the future. The 2018/19 CDRT Report stated the most

common cause of death for children aged 1-4 years in 2016/17, was cancers and tumours, followed

by drowning. The leading cause of death for children aged 5-14 years was cancers and tumours,

followed by transport-related fatalities.29 The different year range and method of reporting and

28 ABS catalogue 3303.0 Causes of death, NSW, 2018, Table 2.3 29 https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/74244/Child-Death-Review-Team-Annual-Report-2018-19.pdf

Males Females Persons Males Females Persons

Under 1 year

All Causes 159 135 294 2.9 2.6 2.7

1–14 years

All Causes 71 63 134 10.0 9.3 9.7

Malignant neoplasms of eye, brain & other parts of central

nervous system 7 7 14 1.0 1.0 1.0

Metabolic disorders 6 3 9 0.8 np 0.6

Intentional self-harm 5 4 8 0.7 np 0.6

Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related

tissue 1 1 7 np np 0.5

Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes 5 1 6 0.7 np 0.4

Episodic and paroxysmal disorders 1 1 5 np np 0.4

Influenza and pneumonia 4 3 5 np np 0.4

Pedestrian injured in transport accident 2 3 5 np np 0.4

Accidental drowning and submersion 4 3 5 np np 0.4

Number ASDR*

Selected underlying causes of death by age at death, numbers and rates, New South Wales, 2018

Cause of death

collating data means the ABS and CRDT data may differ, particularly as a death may be recorded by

when it occurred or when it was registered.

ABS.Stat Beta is a database that allows user to manipulate and extract data using predetermined

fields. The table below shows data for 4-12-year-old children by year, age and number of deaths for

that age. There does not appear to be a clear trend for each age, with the number of deaths

remaining reasonably consistent with occasional peaks and troughs. When looking at total number

of deaths, it appears that the number of deaths was higher for 4 and 5 years old, relatively

consistent for 6-9 years old and lower for children 10-12 years.

Table 27: Death, 4-12 years, NSW, 2008-2018

Source: ABS.STAT © Commonwealth of Australia, accessed 7/1/2020

The following graph shows the total deaths of 4-12-year-old children for each year from 2008 to

2018. Once again, no overall trend can be identified as some years, such as 2010, 2013, 2016 and

2018 have recorded low numbers of deaths. These are punctuated by high numbers of deaths in

between during 2012, 2015 and 2017.

Figure 10: Deaths by year of registration, 4-12 years, 2008-2018

Source: ABS.STAT © Commonwealth of Australia, accessed 7/1/2020

Age in

years2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Total

deaths

2008-18

4 9 6 9 6 7 9 6 10 12 7 10 91

5 8 11 8 6 13 9 12 9 6 7 6 95

6 9 5 13 9 1 12 6 5 9 9 5 83

7 11 4 3 8 11 6 11 10 4 8 8 84

8 8 5 9 9 11 6 8 13 2 9 5 85

9 13 12 3 1 9 7 3 13 7 8 11 87

10 8 12 2 8 7 3 8 6 6 8 4 72

11 5 6 8 5 7 8 6 3 7 6 1 62

12 6 7 6 11 7 2 7 6 8 7 6 73

Deaths by number of persons and selected ages, NSW, 2008-2018

Deaths of children known to FACS (now DCJ) In 2017, 91 of the 493 children aged 0-18 years who died, were known to FACS (now DCJ). The graph

below shows the total number of deaths of children aged 0-18 years from 2011 to 2017. It also

shows the number of those who were already known to FACS because they and/or their siblings had

either been reported at risk of significant harm (ROSH) in the three years prior to their death or were

already in care30. Although the number of children who were known to FACS, and died, was lower in

2017 than 2016, the data across all years from 2011 to 2017 does not show a clear downward trend.

The total number of deaths of children in NSW increased between 2016 and 2017 but due to annual

fluctuations both up and down over the previous years, a clear trend cannot be observed.

Figure 11:Deaths of children in NSW, and known to FACS, 2011-2017

Source: Child Deaths 2017 Annual Report *Information provided to FACS in 2018 from the NSW Child Death Review Team

Of the 91 children known to FACS, 29 were Aboriginal (32%) with 25 of these children less than five

years of age and 4 being older than five years. The majority of children who died and were known to

FACS were aged less than one year (51 children), followed by those aged 13-18 years (19 children).

Nine children were aged 1-4 years and 5-8 years and three were aged 9-12 years. Boys made up 60%

of deaths (55 children) and girls made up 40% (36 children). FACS’ report states that “While most

children die from causes or in circumstances not related to the reasons for their child protection

reports, the fact remains that children who have been reported to FACS at ROSH are at greater risk” 26.

The following graph shows the number of children who were known to FACS and the circumstances

of their death. This is slightly different to cause of death, which would state a specific injury or cause

of death but not the circumstances in which the death occurred. Almost half the deaths of children

known to FACS could be attributed to Illness or disease (44 children) with a further 13 children each

dying due to Sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) and Extreme prematurity. Another 7 deaths

were undetermined while 4 children each died from inflicted or suspicious injuries and suicide. Only

two deaths were attributed to motor vehicle accidents. Accidental asphyxia, drug overdose, other

accidental injury and drowning accounted for one death each.

30 https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/download?file=637262

Figure 12: Circumstances of death, children known to FACS, 2017

Source: Child Deaths 2017 Annual Report *Information provided to FACS in 2018 from the NSW Child Death Review Team

Child Safety in Cars The number of children dying in car accidents reduced significantly with the introduction and

refinement of laws and regulations regarding the manufacture and use of child restraints in motor

vehicles. This section outlines the history of child restraints and how they have assisted in reducing

the number of children dying in road accidents. A number of different age ranges have been used

due to the format of the data in the Child Death Review Team report.

A 1988 paper by Lorna Heiman on ‘Vehicle Occupant Protection’ was primarily concerned with

seatbelt use, but also outlined the early history of child restraints in motor vehicles 31. In the 1960s,

child restraints were designed more for the comfort rather than the safety of the child, but this

changed in 1970 with the first Australian Standard (AS) ASE46. This was superseded in 1975 by AS

1754, which included more rigorous testing and easier adjustment of straps as well as the

requirement for existing designs to be upgraded to comply with the new standard. The standard

included seven grades of restraint for various ages from birth through to older children, (defined as

3-8 years). Heiman states that in 1986, various surveys had shown a significant proportion of

children were still unrestrained in cars, despite increased availability of child restraints.

A 2019 report from the NSW Child Death Review Team32 found that in the ten-year period from

2007-2016, 66 children aged 0-12 years died as a passenger in a fatal crash. Of these, 29 were

properly restrained in properly fitted, age appropriate restraints. Approximately one in five (15)

were unrestrained and the remaining 20 were not properly restrained. Within the last group of

children not properly restrained, 14 were in age appropriate restraints that were incorrectly fitted

and six were in restraints unsuited to their age. The CRDT report stated that the correct use of a

31 https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/1988/pdf/Prot_Aust_1.pdf 32 https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/70733/The-role-of-child-restraints-and-seatbelts-in-passenger-deaths-Children-0-12years-in-NSW.pdf

restraint could have saved the lives of 20 children. This shows that the problems that existed in the

1986 report had not been totally resolved in 2019.

In 2019, as at October, in Australia, a total of 38 children aged between 0-16 years died in road

accidents. Of these, 18 were aged between 4-12 years, and only six were from NSW. Of these six,

four were males, two were females, five were passengers, one was a pedestrian, three died in a

major city, two died in an inner regional area and one in an outer regional area. These figures are

very different to 1989, when a total of 257 Australian children died in road accidents. This is

evidence that the safety measures introduced over that past three decades have had an enormous

impact on reducing the road toll in children.

Figure 13: Road fatalities by age range, 1989-2019, NSW

Source: BITRE, date of access 18 November 2019

Juvenile Crime The ABS produce annual statistics on recorded crime, including recorded crime by age and principal

offence 33. According to the ABS, the rate of youth offenders decreased in 2016-2017. Male

offenders outnumbered female offenders in all age ranges. Children under the age of 10 years are

not included in the data. The data shown in Table 28 below is for the whole of Australia. Although

the ABS provide figures for each state and figures for each age, they are not available together to

33 https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/4519.0~2017-18~Main%20Features~Youth%20Offenders~4

show age and state. More information is available in Catalogue 4519 on the ABS website provided in

the footnote of this page.

The most common offence for 10-year-old children, with a rate of 59.6 per 100,000 population, was

Unlawful entry with intent, followed by Theft (51.4 per 100,000), Property damage & environmental

pollution (47.8 per 100,000) and Acts intended to cause injury (38.3 per 100,000). Unlawful entry

with intent was also the most common offence for 11-year-old children (96. 9 per 100,000), followed

by Theft (85.0 per 100,000), Acts intended to cause injury (74.1 per 100,000) and Property damage &

environment pollution (66.6 per 100,000). The most common offence for 12-year-old children was

Theft with 210.0 per 100,000, followed by Acts intended to cause injury (169.2 per 100,000) and

Unlawful entry with intent (135.4 per 100,000). The rate of offending by 12-year-old children was

much higher than for 10 and 11 year-old children and the type of offences they committed had

changed with an increase in the more serious offences such as Sexual assault & related offences

(32.8 per 100,000), Illicit drug offences (21.6 per 100,000) Abduction/harassment (12.9 per 100,000)

and Robbery/Extortion 13.6 per 100,000). Compared to the rates for all offenders with all ages, the

rates were quite low, however, they did increase with the age of the child in all offences except

Miscellaneous offences. See Table 28.

Table 28: Offenders by age and principal offence, Australia, 2016-2017

Source: ABS Catalogue 4519, 2017-2018, Youth Offenders Data Cube Note: Rate is per 100,000 of population for that age or range

The ABS stated the rate of youth offenders had decreased in 2016-201734. In addition, in 2019, Lily

Trimboli from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), reported this had been a trend

for the past 15 to 20 years in NSW, particularly for young offenders in the offences of break and

enter, motor vehicle theft, robbery and serious non-domestic assault35. This paper focuses on

children aged 12 years or under but the age range used by Trimboli was 10-14 years It is clear in

34 ABS Catalogue 4519, 2017-2018 35 https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Pages/bocsar_news/bb129-Trends-in-NSW-Police-clear-up-rates.aspx

No. Rate No. Rate No. Rate No. Rate No. Rate

Persons

01 Homicide and related offences 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 24 1.0 665 3.1

02 Acts intended to cause injury 117 38.3 218 74.1 485 169.2 8,773 378.1 78,421 369.3

03 Sexual assault and related offences 19 6.2 25 8.5 94 32.8 1,487 64.1 8,123 38.2

04 Dangerous/negligent acts 7 2.3 13 4.4 20 7.0 401 17.3 2,465 11.6

05 Abduction/harassment 16 5.2 15 5.1 37 12.9 555 23.9 4,943 23.3

06 Robbery/extortion 3 1.0 17 5.8 39 13.6 1,031 44.4 3,388 16.0

07 Unlawful entry with intent 182 59.6 285 96.9 388 135.4 4,554 196.3 12,360 58.2

08 Theft 157 51.4 250 85.0 602 210.0 19,205 827.7 78,093 367.7

09 Fraud/deception 3 1.0 17 5.8 29 10.1 858 37.0 11,112 52.3

10 Il l icit drug offences 0 0.0 23 7.8 62 21.6 5,757 248.1 81,160 382.2

11 Prohibited/regulated weapons 14 4.6 16 5.4 40 14.0 914 39.4 12,117 57.1

12 Property damage & environmental pollution 146 47.8 196 66.6 267 93.1 3,376 145.5 16,263 76.6

13 Public order offences 63 20.6 81 27.5 185 64.5 5,285 227.8 61,198 288.2

15 Offences against justice 8 2.6 6 2.0 14 4.9 608 26.2 26,065 122.7

16 Miscellaneous offences 8 2.6 14 4.8 6 2.1 1,026 44.2 15,739 74.1

Total Persons 735 240.5 1,177 400.0 2,285 797.1 54,064 2,330.1 413,894 1,949.0

Total Males 604 384.8 911 602.3 1,601 1,084.6 38,191 3,206.7 314,997 3,005.2Total Females 132 88.8 268 187.4 675 485.5 15,788 1,398.1 97,913 910.4

10 years 11 years 12 years

Youth offenders

12-17 years All offenders

Offenders by age and principal offence, Australia, 2016-2017

Sex and principal offence

Table 29 below that the majority of offence categories for 10-14 year-old children experienced a

significant downward trend and the remaining categories remained stable.

Table 29: Percentage change in age-specific rates of persons of interest proceeded against in recorded criminal incidents, NSW, 1995-2018 (extracted from Issue paper, 2019)

Source: BOCSAR, Crime & Justice Statistics, Bureau Brief, Issue Paper 143 – October 2019

In 2007, BOCSAR released a report “Screening juvenile offenders for further assessment and

intervention” 36 The authors found a high rate of reoffending (71%) in their sample of 457 juvenile

offenders who had been placed on a supervised (community based) order for the first time by the

NSW Children’s Court in the 2000/2001 financial year. Many young offenders in the sample were

Indigenous, some had lost a parent, some had been neglected or abused, some had been placed in

Out of Home Care (OOHC). Few were still at school when they committed their index offence,

changes in address were common, as was being suspended or expelled from school, some had

problems with illicit drugs and a minority were living with both parents. An index offence is the

principal offence of which the offender was convicted at their first court appearance within this

study period. The authors stated the study had limitations regarding the available sample, but the

overall message seemed to be that if those offenders who are at risk of reoffending can be

identified, early intervention programs may assist in keeping them out of the justice system in the

future. It was interesting to note that many of the risk factors relating to young people entering the

justice system were similar to those found to be associated with children with mental illness which

was discussed in a previous chapter.

36 https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/CJB/cjb109.pdf

Conclusion Greater Western Sydney is home to higher numbers of children than the rest of Sydney, particularly

in growth areas such as Blacktown, Camden, Liverpool and The Hills Shire. Although the overall

number of children has been increasing over the past ten years, the proportion of the population

they made up decreased slightly. Children who identified as Indigenous made up 3.0% of all children

aged 4-12 years.

Although the majority (84.3%) of children aged 4-12 years were born in Australia, more than half

(58.5%) had one or both parents born overseas. The most common country of birth other than

Australia was India, followed by New Zealand. More than a third (35.9%) of children aged 4-12 years

spoke a language other than English at home and most of these children spoke English either very

well (26.2%) or well (7.1%). The most common ancestry for these children was Australian, but in

Fairfield it was Vietnamese and in Cumberland it was Lebanese.

Although most children aged 4-12 years in GWS lived in a couple family with children, the proportion

decreased as a child aged with 79.5% of 4-6 year-old children living in a couple family with children,

decreasing to 77.4% of 7-10 year-old children and further to 75.4% of 11-12 year-old children. At the

same time the proportion of children living in a one parent family increased from 14.8% of 4-6-year-

old children, up to 17.3% of 7-10-year-old children and 19.3% of 11-12-year-old children. The

children living in couple families with children were mostly the natural or adopted child of the head

of the household.

Most 4-12 years old children were living in low density housing, but the proportion in GWS dropped

from 85.1% in 2006 down to 76.9% in 2016. At the same time the proportion of children living in

medium density housing rose from 8.9% to 12.89% and the proportion living in high density housing

increased from 5.4% to 9.4%. Children aged 4-12 years were most likely to live in a house owned

with a mortgage (49.7%) or in a rented dwelling (34.5%). Rental dwellings were mostly rented

through a Real Estate agent (69.5%). Public housing accounted for 11.5% of dwelling for children.

Generally, children were at the same address one year ago (82.4%) but only 46.0% were at the same

address 5 years ago.

The majority of children in this age range were attending infants or primary school with 47.9%

attending a Government school, 14.6% a Catholic school and 8.0% a non-Government school. 9.6%

were attending preschool while a total of 7.2% had already started secondary school. In 2018, there

were also 3,557 children in Australia aged 5-12 years who were registered for home schooling. One

area of concern is the high proportion of children starting school who the AEDC found to be

vulnerable in two or more domains.

In NSW in 2017, there were 17,879 children aged 0-17 years who were in OOHC, a situation that can

have a negative effect on a child’s life. There were also 9,017 children aged 4-12 years who had need

for assistance with core activities in 2016. Mental illness also impacts some children with some

findings showing that mental disorders affected 1 in 7 school students. Child deaths, while rare, have

decreased over decades due to interventions such as child restraints in cars, immunisation and

advances in medical treatment. However, there were still 56 deaths of children in NSW in 2018 of

children aged 4-12 years, cancer being the major underlying cause of death.

Overall, there were 291,384 children aged 4-12 years living in GWS in 2016. Supporting families and

ensuring adequate funding is provided to promote positive effects and minimise negative effects is

essential if we are to produce a generation of happy, well adjusted, well educated, valued and

capable young people who are equipped to thrive as adults.