Across Australia – and around the world – young people’s mental health is declining, with two in five now experiencing mental ill-health. There is no one reason for this crisis, but we know that multiple factors – from the economy to global conflict and from climate change to AI – are causing young people distress.
Thanks to a new report from Orygen and Mission Australia, we now know that for 76 per cent of young people in Australia, climate change is having a negative impact, and for some it’s severe.
The report, More than distress: How climate change is shaping young people’s lives, has analysed data from the 2025 Youth Survey of16,230 young people (aged 14-19). Among the surveyed young people, more than three in four experienced some form of climate-related emotional, functional or safety impact related to climate change and environment.
Climate change and the environment were among the top three ‘most important issues in Australia’ according to these young people, along with cost of living and mental health.
Young Australians fell into four impact groups – Low, Emotional, Functional and Safety. Overall mental health and wellbeing were observed poorer among more severely impacted groups, and often compounded existing challenges in their lives.
Impact levels explained
Low impact: 23%
23 per cent of young people were in this group, showing low levels of concern about climate issues and reporting that climate change was not impacting their everyday life or their sense of safety.
Emotional impact: 30%
With 30 per cent falling into this category, emotional impact was the most common response from young people. People in this group worried about the impacts of climate change on people and planet, and felt sad about species extinction – but for them these concerns didn’t have major impacts on their day-to-day functioning, and they remained hopeful for positive change under collective effort.
Functional impact: 25%
25 per cent fell into this more serious category of climate distress, with high levels of worry, grief and negative impacts on day-to-day functioning. Young people in the functional impact group also experienced wellbeing difficulties, including feeling high psychological distress and a lack of control over their lives.
Safety impact: 23%
Young people in this group made up 23 per cent of respondents, were particularly vulnerable to mental health and wellbeing impacts, and were primarily concerned about their physical safety during severe weather events. In contrast to other groups, none of the young people in this group felt safe and comfortable during severe weather events and many in this group also faced other forms of marginalisation and social exclusion.
What do these results tell us about climate distress?
We know that climate distress and sense of safety during severe weather events is closely linked to broader aspects of young people’s wellbeing, and can have impacts across the lifespan.
Adolescence is a time of development and change, and is also the time when mental ill-health is most likely to emerge. This means that if climate distress is negatively impacting young people’s sense of control, hope for the future and life satisfaction, it can have long term effects – shaping their decisions about study, work, relationships and future planning.
Overall, outcomes were better for young people in the ‘low’ and ‘emotional’ impact groups, highlighting how important it is to intervene early with support to prevent progression to more serious levels of impact.
The results also highlight that climate change’s impacts on young people are deeply intertwined with other kinds of disadvantage such as poverty, housing instability, marginalisation, disability, and pre-existing mental health conditions.
For these young people, climate change doesn’t just add a new burden to their lives, it intensifies existing inequalities, reinforcing cycles of vulnerability and undermining mental health and wellbeing.
What’s next?
Whether they experience climate change as an emotional burden, or as something that impacts daily life – or even as a threat to their sense of safety and security – young people are feeling the effects of a changing climate and it’s vital we take this into account when developing targeted policy and support.
These findings highlight the diverse ways climate’s impacts are experienced by young Australians, and addressing these challenges will require a tailored and multifaceted approach that responds to the different levels of risk, vulnerability and distress experienced by young people at this critical time in their lives.