Drug use among Tasmanian youth has increased by 127 per cent over nine years and their health and wellbeing has deteriorated the most when compared to other states and territories, a study has found.
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The inaugural Australian Youth Development Index analysed the outcomes for people aged 10 to 29 across the country from 2006 to 2015 and found Tasmania was the only state or territory whose overall score declined.
Education, health and wellbeing, employment and opportunity, civic participation and political participation were the five domains the report focused on as part of a global measure of progress.
A deterioration of seven per cent saw Tasmania ranked second last overall.
Tasmania’s political participation was up 69 per cent, but the state performed poorly on the employment and opportunity, and health and wellbeing domains.
Job opportunities were a concern among Launceston’s young people, according to 18-year-old Monte Bovill.
“I think it is really clear that lots of people want to leave the state or leave Launceston and that is probably because people see less employment opportunities here,” he said.
“One of my classes at college has about 16 people and majority of the class intend to go to university on the mainland.”
Youth Active chief executive Katie Acheson said: “It is really important for this sort of indicator to start conversations with government, the community and media about how young people are doing and what we need to do better.”
