Adult rights
Enrolling to vote and legal adulthood. Contracts, loans and phone plans become the person's own.
Mountain View row · ages 12 to 21
Enrolling to vote and legal adulthood. Contracts, loans and phone plans become the person's own.
Course fees, HELP loans, or a first full-time wage.
Youth Allowance or Austudy may help students and apprentices, depending on income and parental tests.
A provisional licence is when young-driver insurance costs bite hardest.
Easy credit appears, and early missed payments can shape a credit score for years.
Search these names on the department sites below. Links go to each department's home page.
Figures from published research for the age groups that cover 18–19. Sources often publish wider age groups, so the group shown is the one that includes these ages. They describe groups of people, not any one person. Checked 23 October 2026.
May 2025. Persons. Enrolled in study includes school.
August 2025. Employees only.
Calendar year 2025. Top two scam types by total loss among reports that included a loss. Unreported scams are not counted.
Australian Youth Barometer 2025. A survey of 527 people aged 18 to 24, not an official statistic.
Income for July 2020 to June 2021. Census 2021 linked with tax and payment records. The ABS cautions that incomes for older age groups are likely under-recorded.
2025 Consumer Payments Survey. Share of payments made using cards.
30 June 2024. Per account, not per person, because many people hold more than one account. Median is the middle account; average is pulled up by large balances.
Census 2021. Share of people in the age group who lived alone.
2024. Births per 1,000 women in the age group.
2022. Share of people in the age group who provide informal care. About 11.9% of all Australians living in households (3.0 million) were carers.
2022. Share of people in the age group with disability. Overall 21.4% of Australians (5.5 million) had disability in 2022.
Dollar figures are in the dollars of the year shown. Average and median are not the same: the median is the middle value. Not financial advice.
Illustrative gross incomes: lower about $50,000, middle about $100,000, higher about $200,000 a year. For ages under 18, read these as household incomes. For retirement ages, read them as lower, middle and higher income and savings. They are examples, not official brackets.
Youth Allowance and part-time work are likely to be the main income. Living at home often keeps study affordable.
Study or full-time work with a car and a share-house or home arrangement. HELP debt is common for university students.
Family support may cover fees and rent, so HELP debt is smaller or avoided. Savings and investments may start early.