New research from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey says young Australians' mental health and cognitive skills are in decline, while the federal government’s extension of paid parental leave appears to have helped push up leave taken by both mothers and fathers.
The survey has followed the lives of more than 17,000 people across Australia every year since 2001, and its 2024 data lays out a bleak ledger of what happens when people are left to absorb the costs of a system that keeps demanding more and giving less. Women took more than four months of paid parental leave on average in 2024, while fathers took four weeks. The report says the increases could be due to the federal government extending paid parental leave during this period. Small mercy, on paper. The rest of the numbers read like a slow-motion breakdown.
Who Pays for the System
Self-reported mental health for women across most age groups has declined since 2001, particularly for young women aged 15 to 24. The trend among men is similar, with younger age groups reporting declining mental health across decades, although levels are overall higher than for women. Men aged 65 and over bucked the general trend and saw an increase in self-reported mental health. The survey doesn’t dress this up. It just shows the damage, year after year.
The proportion of young people living with their parents has climbed since the turn of the century, with the increase greatest for 18- to 21-year-olds, lifting to 85 per cent. Most of that growth happened up until the mid-2010s and has remained fairly stable since. That’s not some lifestyle trend. It’s a sign of pressure, of dependency forced by conditions people didn’t choose.
What the Numbers Say About Power
In the survey's cognitive tests, average performance declined for Australians aged 15 to 24 in both the backwards digits span test and the symbol digits modalities test. Older Australians performed better on those tests compared with 2012, and those aged 45 and older did better on average on both tests across time. The split is hard to ignore. The youngest are slipping. Older groups are holding up better. The burden lands where it always does: on people with the least room to absorb it.
The survey also found that a smaller share of Australians are receiving government income support payments, with about 13 per cent of 18- to 64-year-olds receiving income support, down from 24 per cent in 2001. Australians aged 65 and over rely more on benefits, but that share has also dropped across the survey period. Fewer people are getting support, even as the pressures keep piling up. That’s the apparatus in action: trim the safety net, then act surprised when the floor gives way.
The percentage of people with a university degree has risen across decades for all ages and genders, but it has risen much faster for women, with the biggest gender gap emerging in the 35-44 age groups. Average hourly earnings for workers have risen since 2001, despite a surge and dip around the COVID-19 pandemic due to changes in working hours, but the gender pay gap has persisted, with women earning less on average. More credentials. Same unequal pay. The ladder gets longer, not fairer.
The Costs Keep Landing Below
The share of Australians over 15 who experienced food insecurity increased in four years, with more people reporting they could not obtain adequate food in the past year because of a lack of money. That line says enough on its own. Lack of money. Not lack of food. Not lack of production. Lack of money, the gatekeeping tool that decides who eats and who doesn’t.
The percentage of people above the at-risk threshold for problematic social media use was greatest for teenagers and steadily declined across older ages. Housing stress has consistently been higher for single parents with children, but it has also surged for single older men and couples with children in recent years. Relationship quality increases with age, but not before it drops in the 30s and 40s, and women consistently report lower relationship quality than men across their lifetimes. Even at the lowest point for women, the average rating for relationship quality is about four out of five.
The survey’s numbers don’t offer a rescue plan. They map the damage. They show a society where paid leave can expand a little while mental health, food security, housing, and cognitive performance still slide for the people expected to carry the whole thing. The institutions can extend a benefit here, cut support there, and call it progress. The people living through it get the bill anyway.