Young Australians are living through a “polycrisis” of overlapping economic, social, environmental, and political pressures that compound one another and push traditional milestones out of reach, according to new research. Source: SBS News.
The Monash Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice has tracked more than 2700 Australians aged 18 to 24 since 2021 through its Australian Youth Barometer reports, examining their experiences across work, education, housing, wellbeing, relationships and civic participation.
Its latest report describes young Australians as living through a “polycrisis” of overlapping economic, social, environmental and political pressures that compound one another.
Affordable housing was the biggest issue young people flagged as needing urgent action, rising from 60 per cent in 2022 to 82 per cent in 2025.
Also recognised as needing urgent action was employment opportunities, which rose from 48 per cent in 2022 to 64 per cent in 2025. Climate change was identified as an issue needing urgent action by 44 per cent in 2025, falling from 47 per cent in 2022.
Monash University professor Lucas Walsh, the report’s lead author, says the significance of the findings is in how those issues connect.
“These are all embedded within the idea of a polycrisis, which involves overlapping independent events in crisis that intersect and amplify each other,” said.
Professor Walsh said the study started tracking young Australians at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a five-year window into how their lives and priorities have changed as the country moved through and beyond it.
He describes the pandemic as a “flash of light into more persistent problems” which exposed pressures that were already disproportionately affecting young people.
The pressures are also being felt in young people’s mental health, with the barometer finding 99 per cent of the young Australians surveyed reported at least one feeling of anxiety or pessimism in 2025.
Meanwhile, the proportion who sought and received mental-health support fell from 31 per cent in 2021 to 23 per cent in 2025.
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‘We’re not asking for an easy life’: The three key issues at the heart of Australia’s ‘polycrisis’ (SBS News)
