More than 25,000 children and young people currently go missing in Australia each year.
In 2000, the Australian Institute of Criminology released a paper that revealed around 30,000 people go missing each year, of which 20,000 are children and young people. They also stated that "the rate of missing people reported vary considerably around Australia with South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory have rates double the national average". (Australian Institute of Criminology: Trends & Issues in crime and criminal justice.January 2000. Monika Henderson, Peter Henderson and Carol Kiernan).
Of all missing persons, 86% are eventually found, which means that around 2,800 children each year are never found.
“As a society, we should be more curious and concerned that almost 3000 children just disappear, never to be found, every year in this country. The fact that we know that two thirds of these children go missing in South Australia and the Australia Capital Territory should enable us to focus more resources to uncover the truth of this trend. Yet we spend more focus and resources on the road toll which is less than 1500 each year"
-Danielle Paruit