Childhood poverty linked to fivefold risk of early-adult poverty, Australian study finds
Research examines 2,200 Australians from childhood into early adulthood, finding lasting economic disadvantage, especially for single-parent families
Australian children who grow up in poverty face more than five times the risk of poverty in early adulthood compared with the study’s reference group, according to new research published in The Economic Record. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, the study found 27 per cent of children who grew up below the poverty line were living in poverty in their 20s and early 30s, compared with just 5 per cent of those whose families had incomes between 150 and 200 per cent of the poverty line.