A quarter of Canberra children are overweight or obese, and only one in five do the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day, a snapshot of the state of the ACT's children reports.
Only five per cent are eating the recommended five serves of vegetables a day.
The snapshot shows improvement over most areas in recent years, but no significant change in vegetable eating, physical exercise or the proportion of children who are overweight. The ACT's rates of overweight and obese children are slightly lower than the national figures, with 20.2 per cent of children overweight nationally (18.9 per cent in the ACT) and 7.4 per cent obese (5.5 per cent in the ACT).
Smoking
There is good news on smoking, and to a lesser extent on alcohol. In 2014, 81 per cent of Canberra secondary students had never smoked a cigarette, a big improvement over the past decade, with 44 per cent in 1996 reporting that they had never smoked. With changes in the way the information is reported, though, the report urges caution with the 2014 figure.
Smoking rates are much worse among indigenous secondary students, with 16 per cent reporting smoking in the past week (compared with 5 per cent non-indigenous).
Among Aboriginal women, though, 46.5 per cent reported smoking during pregnancy in 2011-13, unchanged in six years and on a par with national figures. Among non-aboriginal women, 6.6 per cent reported smoking during pregnancy in the ACT (13 per cent nationally).
Drink and drugs
While drinking declined to 2011, it has remained steady since, with 72 per cent of secondary students in 2014 reporting they had had at least a few sips of alcohol. Twelve per cent reported drinking in the past week (20 per cent for indigenous students) and 5 per cent are risky levels.
There was a jump in the number of secondary students reporting using drugs. In 2011 12.7 per cent of students reporting having used an illicit drug, jumping to 16.2 per cent in 2014. Cannabis is the main drug, but the number using ecstasy and LSD jumped from about 2 per cent to 4.7 and 4.8 per cent. Again, the report urges caution in interpreting the figures.
Developmental problems
At age 5, children are assessed as developmentally on track, at risk or vulnerable - based on their health, social competence, emotional maturity, school performance, communication skills and general knowledge.
In 2015, 22.5 per cent of children were judged developmentally vulnerable, similar to previous years. The biggest numbers of developmentally vulnerable children are in Belconnen (25.1 per cent) and Gungahlin (23 per cent), and the lowest proportion in north and south Canberra (19.4 and 19.8 per cent).
Aboriginal children are in a much worse situation, with 42 per cent developmentally vulnerable.
And boys are worse off the girls, with 29.4 per cent judged developmentally vulnerable compared with 15.7 per cent of girls.
A gap between boys and girls persists in school. The report saying the gap is "pervasive and well established" by year 3. By year 9, girls are one-and-a-half to two years ahead of boys in writing.
Housing stress and children in care
In 2011 (the latest census data), 6800 children were in households living in rental stress in the ACT - much worse than the previous censuses. In 2006, 5200 children were living in rental stress, and in 2001 the figure was 4200.
In June 2015, 671 children were in care, a big increase from 606 the year before. Just over half were in kinship care and 37 per cent were in foster care. While nationally the rate of indigenous children in care was nine times the rate of non-indigenous children, in the ACT the rate was 13 times the rate for non-indigenous children.
Offending
The rate of young people charged with a criminal offence continued to fall and in 2014–15 was less than half the rate of 2010–11.
The number of young people detained at the Bimberi youth justice centre peaked at 173 in 2009-10. By 2014-15, 91 young people were in Bimberi, up slightly on the year before. Twenty-nine per cent of them were indigenous. While most were 16 or older, two were just 11. Five 13-year-olds were detained in Bimberi, and 11 14-year-olds.
The report comments that any period of detention can impact on education, employment and relationships, and draw children further into the justice system.
Breastfeeding
The number of mothers exclusively breastfeeding their babies at is stable, at 73 per cent for three-month-old babies and 56 per cent for four-month-old babies. By the time they're one year old, 51 per cent of babies are still receiving some breast milk at one year old, a figure that has risen steadily from 40 per cent in 2011-12.