Findings from the AEDC

This interactive chart shows trends in the AEDC for individual domains and summary indicators from 2009 to 2018. This chart can be filtered by National and state/territory results, for more localised results visit the AEDC Data Explorer. If you would like to find out more about the domains, and what it means to be developmentally vulnerable, at risk or on track on a specific domain refer to the page About the AEDC Domains.

Key findings from the AEDC

• ​The 2018 AEDC data show a significant decrease in the level of vulnerability on one or more domain(s) from 22 per cent (in 2012 and 2015) to 21.7 per cent.
• Significant gains have been made in children’s communication skills and general knowledge with 8.2 per cent of children developmentally vulnerable on this domain in 2018. This is a decrease from 8.5 per cent in 2015 and 9.0 per cent in 2012. The percentage of children on track in this domain has increased from 76.3 per cent in 2015 to 77.3 per cent in 2018, corresponding to approximately 3,000 more students across the country who are on track in these skills when they start school.
• The level of vulnerability in the emotional maturity domain in 2018 remained the same as in 2015 at 8.4 per cent, however this still remains higher than in 2012 (7.6 per cent).
• The physical health and wellbeing and social competence domains have fluctuated over the years. Both domains have remained relatively stable over the 2015 and 2018 data collections. The physical health and wellbeing domain decreased from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 9.6 per cent in 2018, however this still remains higher than 9.3 per cent in 2012. The percentage of children on track in the physical health and wellbeing domain has increased from 77.3 per cent in 2015 to 78.1 per cent in 2018. The social competence domain saw a decrease in vulnerability from 9.9 per cent in 2015 to 9.8 per cent in 2018, however this remains higher than in 2012 (9.3 per cent). The percentage of children on track on the social competence domain has increased from 75.2 per cent in 2015 to 75.8 per cent in 2018.
• The level of vulnerability in the language and cognitive skills (school based) domain has remained relatively stable over 2018 (6.6 per cent) and 2015 (6.5 per cent). However this is still lower than 8.9 per cent in 2009.