This month focuses on the following topics: Granny flats, gambling and mental health and well-being.

Forthcoming releases

If you are interested in any of the forthcoming releases or datasets, please contact the Parliamentary Library to discuss in more detail.

(a) Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) Note: Release dates may be subject to change without notice.

After the latest key economic statistics? Visit the Parliamentary Library’s Key Economic and Social Indicators Dashboard (KESI).

Granny Flat Report (CoreLogic, Archistar and Blackfort)

According to the report:

Analysis from the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) forecasts a housing supply shortfall of 106,300 homes over the next five years. Across capital cities, the shortage is forecast to be most pronounced in Melbourne, at -23,800, while Sydney is expected to be undersupplied to the tune of -12,100 dwellings and Brisbane by -7,000 dwellings. (p. 6)

The report discusses a possible option to ease housing: 'More than 655,000 residential properties suitable for a granny flat have been identified across Australia’s three largest capitals’ (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) (p. 7).

Gambling in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)

Key points of interest:

• In 2022, 3 in 4 (73%) Australians aged 18 and over reported spending money on one or more gambling products in the past 12 months. Lotteries/scratchies were the product with the highest participation (64%), followed by race betting (horse, greyhound and/or harness racing, 39%), sports betting (34%) and poker machines/‘pokies’ (33%).
• 38% of adult Australians gambled at least weekly–48% for men and 28% for women.
• Almost half (46%) of Australians aged 18 and over who gambled would be classified as being at risk of, or already experiencing, gambling harm.

National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–22 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

According to the World Health Organisation, a mental disorder is characterised by a 'clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour'. The term covers a range of disorders including Anxiety, Affective and Substance Use disorders. Here are some key statistics from the latest report from the ABS (unless otherwise stated, the data refers to persons aged 16-85):

• 42.9% or 8.5 million people had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life.
• 1 in 5 Australians (or 4.3 million people) had a 12-month mental disorder, with Anxiety disorders being the most common (17.2% or 3.4 million people) followed by Affective disorders (7.5% or 1.5 million people) and Substance Use disorders at 3.3% or 647,900 people.
  • Females experienced higher rates than males of Anxiety disorders (21.1% compared with 13.3%) and Affective disorders (8.6% compared with 6.5%).
  • Males had over twice the rate of Substance Use disorders compared to females (4.4% compared with 2.1%).

• 8.7% or 1.7 million people had self-harmed in their lifetime and 1.7% (342,100) had self-harmed in the previous 12 months:
  • Females had higher rates of self-harm than males (2.2% compared with 1.2%) as well as across their lifetime (10.4% compared with 6.8%).
  • More than 1 in 4 females (27.9%) aged 16–24 years had self-harmed in their lifetime.

Interested in finding out what the latest statistics are telling us about the Australian economy and population? Each month the Parliamentary Library publishes a Flag Post article listing new reports on a wide variety of topics. The list includes important upcoming ABS releases and reports from other research organisations and government departments.