MEDIA RELEASE
13 September 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	111/2011

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people who were at school, TAFE or university were less likely than their peers to engage in risky health behaviour, according to a report released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The report found that 60% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (aged 15–19 years) were studying in 2008. A further 10% had completed Year 12 or higher qualification and were no longer studying.

These young people were less likely to smoke, drink alcohol or take illicit drugs than those who were not studying and had not completed Year 12 or higher qualification.

In addition, the report found a link between the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the level of education of their parents. In 2008, children (aged 0–14 years) who were in excellent or very good health were more likely than those in fair or poor health to have a main carer who had completed school to at least Year 10 (72% compared with 60%), or who had completed a non-school qualification (such as a bachelor degree) (37% compared with 26%) .

More details on these and other topics are available in the September release of the report Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing: A focus on children and youth (cat. no. 4725.0).
Additional analyses of the children and youth data will be available later in 2011.

Media notes:

• When reporting on ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.