Understanding child mobility in Australia, 2006-2021

Between 2006 and 2021:

• 57.8% of children aged zero to 14 years moved at least once.
• Among children who moved, 32.4% moved three or more times. 
• Children aged zero to 4 years had a higher rate of mobility than children in other age groups (187.0 moves per 1,000 person-years), compared with 169.1 among those aged 5 to 9 years, and 164.1 among those aged 10 to 14 years. 
• In 2021, more moves originated from the relatively most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (24.5%) than from any other areas. Of all moves in 2021, 40.1% were lateral, involving no change in area level socioeconomic context.
   

Children grow up shaped by many different environments across their lives. Family, schools, communities, and neighbourhoods contribute in different ways to children’s experiences, opportunities, and wellbeing.[2] While no single environment defines a child’s outcomes, the places where children live can shape access to schools, services, green space, and community connections.[3]

Mobility is one way through which children can be exposed to different neighbourhood environments.[4] Because mobility can influence future outcomes differently depending on a child’s age and the pattern of their moves,[5-7] it is best understood as a process that unfolds over time rather than a single event.[1] While moving may provide children with access to better opportunities and services, it can also disrupt stability, social connections, and continuity of care. Understanding when, how often, and in what ways children move can support planning and forecasting, helping communities and services respond to patterns and shifts in where children live and grow up. 

This release provides a national overview of mobility among children (zero to 14 years) from calendar years 2006 to 2021. Analyses are based on a new child mobility indicator using the Life Course Dataset. The Life Course Dataset is a longitudinal administrative dataset that enables linkage of individuals to anonymised[8] address history information from 2006 onward. This makes it possible to observe changes in place of residence (i.e. mobility) over time. By capturing mobility across years, the Life Course Dataset can provide a broader understanding of children’s mobility patterns than is available from the Census of Population and Housing alone.

This release describes how often children move, the types of moves they make, and the socioeconomic characteristics of the areas they move between. The analyses focus on patterns of movement rather than the reasons families move or the individual circumstances behind those moves. These patterns provide important context for understanding how children’s exposure to different neighbourhood conditions may relate to advantage, disadvantage and future opportunities.

Alongside work underway through the ABS Life Course Data Initiative (LCDI) pilot, these findings aim to build an evidence base on how child mobility relates to neighbourhood circumstances and support policy responses that improve wellbeing for children and their families. 

• Between 2006 and 2021, over 5 million children (57.8%) aged zero to 14 years changed their place of residence at least once. This represents the proportion of children who were aged zero to 14 years at any time from 2006 to 2021 and who experienced at least one move during the period. 
• Among all children who moved at least once between 2006 and 2021, the average number of moves was 2.3. 
• When all moves that occurred between 2006 and 2021 are considered, the average age at which moves occurred was 6.8 years. 
• The proportion of children who moved per year changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In each year between 2006 and 2019, the percentage of children who moved at least once per year ranged between 14.4%-16.5%, but this prevalence declined in 2020 (14.2%) and increased in 2021 (17.5%).

The apparent change in the percent of children who moved at least once in 2020 and 2021 compared to other years may be attributed to the unprecedented impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on administrative data and the lags associated with it. For more information see the Medicare Data Adjustment section in Net interstate migration review.

• Between 2006 and 2021, children aged zero to 4 years had a higher rate of mobility, averaging 187.0 moves per 1,000 person-years, compared with 169.1 among those aged 5 to 9 years, and 164.1 among those aged 10 to 14 years. This pattern of mobility declining with age was consistent from 2006 to 2019, but became less pronounced in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• For all age groups, the rate of annual mobility changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, declining in 2020 and increasing in 2021. The extent of those changes varied by age group. From 2019 to 2020, the mobility rate fell 15.7% for children aged zero to 4 years, 14.2% for children aged 5 to 9 years, and 12.2% for children aged 10 to 14 years. From 2020 to 2021, the mobility rate increased by 18.8% for children aged zero to 4 years, 24.0% for children aged 5 to 9 years, and 29.6% for children aged 10 to 14 years. 

Between 2006 and 2021, the amount of time each age group was observed in the analytic population was spread relatively evenly across age groups, with each accounting for about one third of total person-years to each age group (ages zero to 4: 33.7%, ages 5 to 9: 33.6%, ages 10 to 14: 32.8%). This reflects the age structure and duration of observation in the dataset. As a result, differences in mobility rates between age groups are likely to reflect differences in mobility patterns, rather than differences in how long each age group was observed. 

• Among the over 5 million children who moved between 2006 and 2021, the majority (56.6%) were repeat movers (moving two or more times), while 43.4% moved once. The extent to which children made repeat moves differed depending on the type of move (short or long distance).
• Between 2006 and 2021, 76.2% of movers made at least one short distance move. Repeat short distance mobility was observed, with 34.1% of movers making two or more short distance moves over that period. This may reflect life course adjustments, such as changes in housing needs or schooling. 
• Long distance moves were less frequent and were typically one-off events. Between 2006 and 2021, 48.1% of movers made at least one long distance move. Repeat long distance mobility was less common than repeat short distance mobility, with 19.6% of movers making two or more long distance moves.

Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2021 codes were used to determine the type of move that a child made. A short distance move is where a child moves to a different Statistical Area 1 (SA1), but remains within the same larger region, known as a Statistical Area 4 (SA4). SA1s represent neighbourhood-scale geography (around 400 people). A long distance move is where a child moves from one SA4 to another. SA4s represent large regional areas (above 100,000 people), often corresponding to labour markets or distinct regions. These classifications of move type are adapted from Wu (2025).[1] While these classifications aim to reflect the geographic scale of the move, they do not necessarily reflect the physical distance travelled. For example, a move within a large labour market region may cover a long physical distance, while a move between small labour market regions may be relatively short.

All previous analyses in this release examined moves made by children between 2006 and 2021. This section focuses on moves made in 2021 only, aligning with the most recent version of the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA)  Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD). 

• 822,300 children (17.5%) moved at least once in 2021, making 914,600 moves throughout the year. The largest proportion (24.5%) of all moves originated from the relatively most disadvantaged areas (Quintile 1), compared to 16.8% from the relatively most advantaged areas (Quintile 5). This suggests that either children from the relatively most disadvantaged areas were more likely to move in 2021 than those from more advantaged areas, and/or that they were more likely to experience repeat moves in 2021. 
• The proportion of children living across SEIFA IRSAD quintiles in 2021 was evenly distributed. At 30 June 2021, 20.0% of children lived in the relatively most disadvantaged areas (Quintile 1), while 19.3% lived in the relatively most advantaged areas (Quintile 5). This means that although the largest proportion of moves in 2021 originated from Quintile 1, this is unlikely to be because a greater concentration of children lived in that quintile. 

Less than 1% of moves were not assigned an origin or destination quintile because the SA1 of the origin or destination did not have a SEIFA score.  For more information see the Areas without SEIFA Scores section in SEIFA methodology, 2021. 

• Among all moves that children made in 2021, the largest proportion (40.1%) were lateral, involving no change in SEIFA quintile. A further 32.2% of moves reflected an upward move to a relatively advantaged area and 27.7% reflected a downward move to a relatively disadvantaged area. 
• The proportion of moves that were lateral differed by the SEIFA quintile of the area children moved from. Lateral moves were more common from Quintile 1 (49.3%) and Quintile 5 (57.5%) indicating moves originating from these areas remained within areas of similar socioeconomic context. This compares with 30.6% from Quintile 2, 30.0% from Quintile 3, and 33.5% from Quintile 4. 
• Moves spanning multiple SEIFA quintiles were relatively uncommon in 2021. Most moves (76.4%) involved either no change or a change of one SEIFA quintile, whereas moves spanning three or more quintiles accounted for 7.3% of all moves. Moves were also more likely to occur between adjacent quintiles (e.g., Quintile 4 to Quintile 5). For example, 22.3% of moves originating from Quintile 4 were to Quintile 5. This compares with 10.7% from Quintile 3, 6.1% from Quintile 2 and 3.0% from Quintile 1. 

The below Sankey diagram shows the extent to which children move between areas with different levels of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage across Australia. The diagram is read from left to right, following children from their previous location (Origin) to their new location (Destination). Quintile 1 represents the relatively most disadvantaged areas, while Quintile 5 represents the relatively most advantaged. The width of each coloured flow reflects the number of children making that transition, so wider flows indicate larger movements between quintiles.

1. Excludes children whose recorded moves in 2021 were all to or from unknown locations.
2. Excludes moves for which the origin and destination SA1 could not be assigned a SEIFA quintile. 
3. Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD), 2021.

Most analyses in this release include children aged zero to 14 years observed in the data between 2006 and 2021, meaning they are represented for different lengths of time as they enter into and out of the analytic population. To examine patterns across the full course of childhood, this section focuses on the 472,000 children born in 2006 and 2007, who are continuously observed in the analytic population from birth to age 14. This birth cohort analysis allows patterns across childhood, such as the timing of first recorded move, to be measured without missing earlier or later moves. Understanding the ages at which moves occur is important, as they may coincide with key transitions and stages throughout childhood. [9-12]

• Among children born in calendar years 2006 and 2007, 394,400 (83.6%) changed their place of residence at least once over the first 15 years of life. This proportion is higher than the 57.8% estimated for the full population, which includes all children between 2006 and 2021, partly because those children are not all observed from birth to age 14.
• Children born in 2006 and 2007 made around 1.3 million moves from birth to 14 years of age. Most moves occurred before the start of secondary school, with 79.8% of all moves made by this birth cohort taking place before age 12. 
• The average age at first ever recorded move for children born in 2006 and 2007 was 3.7 years, indicating that mobility begins early in childhood.
• Moves made by children born in 2006 and 2007 were most common at age one, when 8.6% of all moves took place. Some of these moves reflected repeat mobility: among children who moved at age one, 31.1% had already moved at least once. 

Creating a child mobility indicator using the Life Course Dataset provides further detail on data sources and methods.

This release has been produced via a collaboration with the Centre for Community Child Health of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

1. Wu G (2025), ‘Repeat internal migration: a life-course trajectory approach’, PhD Thesis, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, accessed 30 April 2026.
2. Minh A, Muhajarine N, Janus M, Brownell M, Guhn M (2017), ‘A review of neighborhood effects and early child development: How, where, and for whom, do neighborhoods matter?’, Health & Place, vol. 46, pp. 155–174, accessed 30 April 2026.
3. Goldfeld S, Villanueva K, Tanton R, Katz I, Brinkman S, Giles-Corti B, Woolcock G (2021), 'Findings from the Kids in Communities Study (KiCS): A mixed methods study examining community-level influences on early childhood development', PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 9, e0256431, accessed 30 April 2026.
4. Ryan C, Whelan S (2010), ‘Locational disadvantage, socio-economic status and mobility behaviour – evidence from Australia’, conference paper, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, accessed 30 April 2026.
5. Vidal S, Baxter J (2018), ‘Residential relocations and academic performance of Australian children: A longitudinal analysis’, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 132–154, accessed 30 April 2026.
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7. Chetty R, Nathaniel H, Lawrence FK (2016), ‘The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment’, American Economic Review 106 (4): 855–902, doi: 10.1257/aer.20150572, accessed 23 July 2026.  
8. An anonymised address refers to a secure hashed Address Register Identifier (ARID) that represents each address in the ABS Address Register. Hashing transforms the ARID into a unique and anonymised numerical code that does not contain the original address information.
9. Bernard A, Bell M, Charles‐Edwards E (2014), ‘Life‐course transitions and the age profile of internal migration’, Population and Development Review, 40(2), 213-239, doi: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2014.00671.x, accessed 23 July 2026.  

10. Bernard A, Vidal S (2020), ‘Does moving in childhood and adolescence affect residential mobility in adulthood? An analysis of long‐term individual residential trajectories in 11 European countries’, Population, Space and Place, 26(1), e2286, accessed 23 July 2026.  

11. Hugo G, Harris K (2011), ‘Population distribution effects of migration in Australia’, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, accessed 23 July 2026. 
12. Rogers A, Castro LJ (1981), ‘Model migration schedules’,International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), accessed 23 July 2026.