Counting culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children in Australian health research: Does it matter how we count?

Objective

To describe how culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children are identified and enumerated in routine data collections and in child health research in Australia.

Methods

Descriptive analysis, where different definitions of CALD were applied to the 2021 Australian Census to measure the size of the CALD population of Australian children aged 0 to 17 years. Narrative review of the Australian child health literature to examine how CALD children were defined.

Results

Applying various definitions to the 2021 Census, the estimated proportion of CALD children aged 0 to 17 ranged from 6.3% to 43%. The most commonly applied CALD indicators were language background other than English and being born overseas.

Conclusions

There is no consensus on how CALD is defined in Australian child health research. Application of different CALD indicators can generate up to seven-fold differences in estimates of who counts as being a CALD child.

Implications for Public Health

If we are to advance health and well-being equity for CALD children, we need a more consistent approach to understanding which children are counted as CALD.