Persistence of social exclusion
By measuring social exclusion we can now see how persistent the experience of social exclusion is for people in Australia.
The graph below shows the persistence of social exclusion over an nine-year period, from 2001 to 2009. Note that this was a period of sustained economic growth with record low unemployment.
The ‘all social exclusion’ bars in the graph show the total of marginal social exclusion and deep social exclusion.
To copy this graph for your own use, right-click on the image (or control-click on a Mac) and paste the graph into your document. Please credit 'The Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Melbourne Institute 2012'.
See data table for this graph.
While almost half of Australians (45%) did not experience any social exclusion over this period (2001–09), 55% were excluded in at least one year, and 18% were deeply excluded in at least one year.
For many Australians their experience of social exclusion is temporary. Of greatest concern are the people for whom exclusion lasts a long time: the 30% of people who were excluded to some degree in at least three years within this nine-year period, and the 6% who experienced deep exclusion in at least three years. Social exclusion for at least three years is considered to be ‘persistent’ exclusion.
The social exclusion monitor is the work of the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR). This page was updated using analysis of Wave 9 of the HILDA Survey in March 2012.