Country Loses Out to City

More than one third of young Australians from non-metropolitan areas relocate to a major city in the years immediately after leaving school and, although some return, non-metropolitan areas experience a net loss of a quarter of their young people.

A new report by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is the first national longitudinal study of young people’s geographic mobility. It focuses on the experiences of 5000 young Australians who were living in a non-metropolitan area in their final years of school. They were tracked from 19997 to 2004.

Those making the move to a major city were typically drawn by the pursuit of further study. Over the seven year period, approximately 40% who had moved to a city were studying either at university or TAFE or were undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship.

By contrast, those with full time employment in the non-metropolitan areas were more likely to stay there. Full time employment also worked to keep young people in the city after completing their studies.

‘The report suggests that young people are leaving their rural communities because those communities are not able to provide as many further education and training, employment and other opportunities as are available in the major cities,’ said ACER Chief Executive, Professor Geoff Masters.

However, no significant difference was found in the rates of employment, average incomes, work hours and life satisfaction of young people who left non-metropolitan areas for the city in comparison with those who stayed behind or returned after a period in the city.

Non-metropolitan youth are likely to continue to leave their homes to pursue tertiary study and Masters says that rural communities have a challenge ahead to convince these young people to return after completing their studies.

Further information on the study entitled ‘The movement of non-metropolitan youth towards the cities’ by Kylie Hillman and Sheldon Rothmans is available on the ACER website (LSAY Research Report No 50) at: www.acer.edu.au

[Appeared in NIB Vol 26, No. 3  April 07]