The Persistence of Poverty from Childhood to Early Adulthood in Australia*

Abstract

Drawing on 22 years of longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we investigate how exposure to poverty in childhood is associated with poverty risk in early adulthood. We find a substantial and highly non‐linear gradient in poverty persistence from childhood into early adulthood. Compared with children from households with an income between 150 per cent and 200 per cent of the poverty line, those growing up below the poverty line have an early‐adulthood poverty rate that is 22.4 percentage points higher on average, whereas those growing up in near‐poverty, with an income between 100 per cent and 150 per cent of the poverty line, have a rate 8.7 pe..