Statistics and Indicators

Meals together, children

    Chart

    Number of meals together in the past week, 5 - 17 years, ACT General Health Survey, 2020 - 2021

    In 2021, the majority of respondents to the ACT General Health Survey aged 5-17 years reported that during the past week, all family members living in the household ate a meal together every day (65.6%). Males (67.8%) were slightly more likely to report eating a meal together as a family than females (62.7%), however this difference was not statistically significant.

    Respondents who reported that they live alone were excluded from analysis.

    For the purpose of reporting the ACT General Health Survey data on HealthStats, if the 95% confidence intervals of the estimates do not overlap, they are considered to be significantly different.

    Note: The indicator shows self-reported data collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Estimates were weighted to adjust for differences in the probability of selection among respondents and were benchmarked to the estimated residential population using the latest available Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates.

    Responses for children aged 5-15 years were provided by the parent/carer who knows the most about the child's health. Persons includes male, female, other and refused sex respondents and may not always add to the sum of male and female.

    The following estimates have a relative standard error between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution:

    - 2021 persons who ate no meals together in the last week
    - 2020 and 2021 males who ate no meals together in the last week.

    The following estimates have not been published due to small numbers or a relative standard error greater than 50%:

    - 2020 and 2021 females who ate no meals together in the last week
    - 2020 and 2021 females who ate 1 to 3 meals together in the last week.


    Statistically significant differences are difficult to detect for smaller jurisdictions such as the Australian Capital Territory. Sometimes, even large apparent differences may not be statistically significant. This is particularly the case in breakdowns of small populations because the small sample size means that there is not enough power to identify even large differences as statistically significant.

    To access the data please click on the "View source data" link at the bottom of the visualisation. This link will open up a data table that you can download.