Kids and mobiles – How Australian children are using mobile phones: Methodology

Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey

We sourced the data in the Kids and mobiles report from Roy Morgan Research’s Young Australians Survey, a nationwide study of Australian children aged 6 to 13.

The Young Australians Survey involves interviews of about 2,500 Australian children annually. This is the largest ongoing survey of this age group. The children are from the households of existing Roy Morgan Single Source participants.

The data in the Kids and mobiles report covers interviews done in Australia from July 2014 to June 2020, and is weighted to represent between 2.469 and 2.632 million Australian children over the last 6 years (see the table below). All figures refer to 12-month periods to the end of June.

Table 1: Projected population of Australian children aged 6 to 13, from Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, in the 12 months to June each year

Data period	Population estimate
2019–20	2,632,000
2018–19	2,600,000
2017–18	2,567,000
2016–17	2,535,000
2015–16	2,502,000
2014–15	2,469,000

The following tables detail the sample sizes for each period and demographic used in the Kids and mobiles report.

Table 2: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13, in the 12 months to June each year (by gender)

Data period	Total	Boys	Girls
2019–20	2,083	1,004	1,079
2018–19	2,226	1,103	1,123
2017–18	2,527	1,220	1,307
2016–17	2,468	1,198	1,270
2015–16	2,876	1,432	1,444
2014–15	2,622	1,268	1,354

Table 3: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13, in the 12 months to June each year (by age)

Data period	Total	6 to 7	8 to 9	10 to 11	12 to 13
2019–20	2,083	396	493	557	637
2018–19	2,226	419	539	669	599
2017–18	2,527	504	626	715	682
2016–17	2,468	492	579	739	658
2015–16	2,876	563	697	792	824
2014–15	2,622	549	612	712	749

Table 4: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13, in the 12 months to June each year (by location)

Data period	Capital cities	Regional areas	NSW/ACT	Vic/Tas	Qld	SA/NT	WA
2019–20	1,322	761	536	527	393	243	361
2018–19	1,294	932	577	575	458	240	357
2017–18	1,532	995	692	614	586	276	345
2016–17	1,482	986	672	644	525	286	329
2015–16	1,459	1,417	814	764	584	275	402
2014–15	1,455	1,167	811	743	528	232	273

Note: ‘Capital cities’ refers to those who live in Australian capital cities, excluding Darwin. ‘Regional areas’ refers to those who live outside Australian capital cities but includes Darwin.

Table 5: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, Australians aged 6 to 13, in the 12 months to June each year (by socio-economic quintiles)

Data period	AB quintile	C quintile	D quintile	E quintile	FG quintile
2019–20	668	487	358	289	238
2018–19	650	484	449	356	287
2017–18	708	549	466	419	385
2016–17	761	516	482	404	305
2015–16	789	696	544	483	364
2014–15	765	568	480	447	362

Note: Socio-economic quintiles are defined according to the education level, income level, and occupation status of the main survey respondent (usually the parent of the child interviewed for the Young Australians Survey). The AB socio-economic quintile represents the top 20% of individuals with the highest education, income and occupation status. The FG socio-economic quintile represents households with the lowest education, income and occupation status.

Usage sample sizes

The following tables detail the sample sizes for each period and demographic of children who used a mobile phone.

Table 6: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13 years, who used a mobile phone (by gender)

Data period	Total	Boys	Girls
2019–20	1,035	463	572
2018–19	1,063	515	548
2017–18	1,235	551	684
2016–17	1,139	513	626
2015–16	1,218	533	685
2014–15	1,131	507	624

Table 7: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13, who used a mobile phone (by age)

Data period	Total	6 to 9	10 to 11	12 to 13
2019–20	1,035	243	271	521
2018–19	1,063	255	332	476
2017–18	1,235	334	353	548
2016–17	1,139	288	330	521
2015–16	1,218	301	312	605
2014–15	1,131	272	321	538

Note: The ‘6 to 7’ and ‘8 to 9’ age groups are combined for this analysis due to the low sample of children aged 6 to 7 who used a mobile phone ‘in the last 4 weeks’.

Table 8: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey,

Australians aged 6 to 13, who used a mobile phone (by location)

Data period	Capital cities	Regional areas	NSW/ACT	Vic/Tas	Qld	SA/NT	WA
2019–20	667	368	275	253	192	130	171
2018–19	659	404	298	272	216	113	156
2017–18	744	491	336	305	277	137	170
2016–17	701	438	317	282	261	122	149
2015–16	650	568	368	313	251	111	157
2014–15	654	477	353	329	230	95	108

Table 9: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, Australians aged 6 to 13, who used a mobile phone (by socio-economic quintiles)

Data period	AB quintile	C quintile	D quintile	E quintile	FG quintile
2019–20	327	246	161	155	121
2018–19	295	235	205	183	145
2017–18	322	265	241	200	207
2016–17	338	229	229	191	152
2015–16	308	281	253	208	168
2014–15	331	234	220	191	155

The following table details the sample sizes for each period and demographic of children who used a mobile phone in the last 4 weeks

Table 10: Research sample sizes for Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, Australians aged 6 to 13, who used a mobile phone in the last 4 weeks

Data period	Own mobile phone	Do not own the mobile phone that they use
2019–20	752	244
2018–19	719	277
2017–18	786	351
2016–17	749	295
2015–16	773	331
2014–15	712	317

Key questions from the Young Australians Survey

Do you have or use a mobile phone?
Is the mobile phone you use your own?
Which of the following things have you used a mobile phone for in the last 4 weeks?

Data analysis

The key findings in the Kids and mobiles report describe the data and show how we interpret it.

Results from the data sets were analysed using:

descriptive analysis techniques
demographic, geographic and socio-economic factors.

This helps us identify areas with significant patterns or differences.

Estimates of the number of people are rounded to the nearest 1,000 people.

All percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Base sizes represent the unweighted count of respondents on which the weighted estimates and proportions are based. Underneath each chart there is a reference to the relevant research sample size table on the methodology page.

Categories with low sample sizes (less than n=100 interviews) should be interpreted with caution.