{"id":561293,"date":"2026-03-24T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561293\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:45:09","slug":"what-are-australias-youth-thinking-and-feeling-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561293\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Australia\u2019s youth thinking and feeling in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0244_639099106797086509.png\" alt=\"What are Australia\u2019s youth thinking and feeling in 2026?\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Since 2001, Mission Australia Youth Survey\u2019s has given young people the chance to share their hopes, views and concerns about what is affecting them and those around them. Twenty-five years on, it is the largest survey of its kind, receiving 17,000-19,500 responses each year from young Australians.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, more than 17,000 young people completed the survey, identifying cost of living (64%), mental health (29%), climate change and the environment (27%) and housing and homelessness (25%) as the top issues facing Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The Youth Survey 2026 will ask several new questions, including. \u2018What&#8217;s one thing that could be changed in your neighbourhood to make your life better?\u2019, and young people\u2019s opinions on barriers to participating in community events and the social media ban.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a quarter of a century, Youth Survey has given young Australians an outlet in which to not only communicate their concerns, but suggest changes they want to see,\u201d Mission Australia Deputy CEO Ben Carblis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that time, we\u2019ve had more than 500,000 surveys completed and while fashion trends might have come full circle, young people\u2019s responses have not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the early years of the Youth Survey, young people\u2019s response to the question on issues of concern showed a shift from issues like alcohol and other drugs, family conflict and body image to coping with stress, school or study problems and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>When the national issues question was added to the Youth Survey in 2010, the top issues included alcohol and other drugs, population\/societal issues and equity and discrimination, but the issues young people have identified lately are around the environment, cost of living and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Carblis said more recent Youth Surveys have seen young people primarily trend away from worrying about the environment to focusing more on housing and cost of living.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, cost of living was the top concern for the second year in a row and at the highest level since the question was first asked in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Results of the survey will be published in November and shared with government, non-government organisations, schools and the public.<\/p>\n<p>Carblis urged schools, community groups, local councils and families to spread the word and encourage young people to participate in Youth Survey 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor 25 years Youth Survey data has been used by a range of decision makers and stakeholders to inform policies and the development of programs and services that impact young people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want as many young people as possible to participate in the Youth Survey, so we can make sure we are hearing from young people from a range of backgrounds and experiences across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2001, Mission Australia Youth Survey\u2019s has given young people the chance to share their hopes, views and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,276805,276806,195110],"class_list":{"0":"post-561293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-student-attitudes","12":"tag-student-sentiment","13":"tag-youth-survey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}