Child Social Exclusion: An Updated Index From the 2006 Census

Justin McNamara () and Ann Harding
Additional contact information
Justin McNamara: University of Canberra

Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), 2009, vol. 12, issue 1, 41-64

Abstract: Much research about child poverty and disadvantage provides national estimates of child wellbeing, due to the ready availability of microdata at the national level. However, an increasing body of evidence suggests that there can be major differences in wellbeing between children living in different geographic areas. In addition, much recent debate has focussed on moving beyond income poverty to broader measures of social exclusion. This article describes the development of a composite index of child social exclusion risk for Australian small areas, using 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data, and building on earlier work based on 2001 Census data. Variables included in the index are based on characteristics of children’s parents, families and households, and include data about parental partnership status, employment and volunteerism, family educational attainment and occupation, household income, housing, transport and internet connection. Results show that there are pronounced spatial differences in the risk of child social exclusion, with areas of high social exclusion risk common in Australia’s rural and regional balance, and in clusters of outer areas in most of Australia’s capital cities.

Keywords: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty; Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labour Markets; Population; Neighbourhood Characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 J13 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE121harding.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ozl:journl:v:12:y:2009:i:1:p:41-64

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE) from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sandie Rawnsley ().