Why a facts and stats site?
When this site was initiated (in 2002) there was no similar service in Australia.While there is a great deal of information 'out there', it is very time consuming for the average person to find it. Our audience includes a wide variety of people (students and professors, youth workers and researchers, parents and policy-makers).
Youth issues span a very wide range of subject matter. Consequently, finding data relating primarily to youth means having to go to a variety of different specialist sources. We deal with research all the time, and much of it contains research data and statistics. This site is seeking to provide a one-stop information service where youth service providers, practitioners such as youth workers and health workers, policy-makers and educators, and young people themselves, can 'go first' to quickly find reliable data, sorted by subject matter and continuously updated.
ACYS defines the period of youth as spanning the ages from 10 to 24. This definition is also used by the Australian Medical Association and the World Health Organisation.