Australia’s 2023–24 Youth in STEM survey by YouthInsight explored young people’s awareness and perceptions of STEM subjects and careers. The analysis below summarises key findings from YouthInsight’s report.
Interest, confidence and career aspirations in STEM
Compare interest, confidence, barriers and career aspirations of girls and boys at different ages and across different diversity groups.
Data insights
Interest in STEM
Girls’ interest in STEM subjects has not changed greatly since the survey program began in 2018–19.
Science remained the most interesting STEM subject for girls in 2023–24.
- 63% of girls were interested in science in 2023–24, compared to 62% in the previous survey.
- 62% of boys were interested in science in 2023–24, compared to 64% in the previous survey.
Girls continue to be least interested in engineering.
- 29% of girls were interested in engineering in 2023–24, compared to 31% in the previous survey.
- 56% of boys were interested in engineering in 2023–24, the same as the previous survey.
Girls’ interest in engineering decreases with age
36% of girls aged 12 to 13 said they were interested in studying engineering.
However, this interest falls as girls get older. Just 29% of girls aged 14 to 17 were interested in studying engineering, and this dropped to 26% for ages 18 to 21. This pattern was also present in the 2021–22 survey.
The percentage of girls who said they would like to work in engineering was low across all age groups. Only 7% of girls aged 12 or 13 said they would choose a career as an engineer, and this dropped to 2% in the oldest age group (22 to 25 years old).
Confidence in STEM
Girls are most confident in science and least confident in engineering. This has remained the same since the survey program began in 2018–19.
Generally, girls’ confidence fell in all STEM subjects as they got older. The following table shows girls’ confidence in STEM subjects at different ages:
| Subject | 12–13 years | 14–17 years | 18–21 years | 22–25 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 69% | 66% | 57% | 60% |
| Technology | 74% | 48% | 49% | 59% |
| Engineering | 31% | 30% | 24% | 30% |
| Mathematics | 54% | 65% | 51% | 50% |
Interestingly, the women aged 22–25 years showed higher confidence than women aged 18–21 years for science, technology and engineering. This was not the case for women in the previous survey, where women aged 22–25 years showed the lowest (or equal-lowest) confidence of all age groups.
While the differences are slight, this could be an encouraging indication that women at early-career age are increasingly more confident in their abilities in STEM subjects, compared to women in the same age category 2 years earlier.
Importance of STEM knowledge for jobs
Girls considered technology and mathematics skills to be important to future employment. This is consistent with results across the survey program.
- Technology was the most important subject for girls in 2023–24. 80% of girls thought it was important, compared with 85% of boys.
- Engineering remained the least important subject for girls. Just 55% of girls thought it was important to get a good job in future, compared with 69% of boys.
Intention to study STEM in the future
Consistent with previous surveys, girls in years 6 to 8 were less likely than boys to choose STEM elective subjects overall in future (60% compared to 81%).
In years 9 and 10, there was no significant difference in intention to study STEM elective subjects overall in future. The likelihood of choosing specific STEM electives was skewed by gender, but not as much as in the 2021–22 survey.
Girls were significantly more likely to choose biology, which was also found in the 2021–22 survey. While girls were also indicatively more likely to choose chemistry in 2023–24, this difference is no longer significant.
Boys were significantly more likely to choose industrial technology, which was also found in the 2021–22 survey. While skews towards boys in years 9 and 10 are still present for the following STEM electives, they are no longer significant:
- physics
- design and technology
- information and digital technology
- engineering.
In years 11 and 12, the significant difference between girls and boys reappears. Girls in years 11 and 12 were less likely than boys to choose STEM elective subjects overall in future (31% compared to 47%). As people in these year levels are considering their higher education study intentions, this finding suggests that girls are more likely than boys to complete their formal STEM education at high school. Girls who continue their studies are less likely to choose STEM fields of education.
Reasons for not studying STEM in the future
Respondents who indicated they were not considering further study in STEM were asked for their reason.
Most girls in this group agreed they wouldn’t study STEM in the future because it did not lead to the career they wanted and they weren’t interested in the subjects.
Girls’ agreement with the following reasons was significantly higher than boys:
- It’s not related to the career I want (76% compared to 69%)
- I’m not really interested in the subjects (72% compared to 59%)
- They are too hard for me (52% compared to 40%)
- I’m not very good at math (48% compared to 39%)
- Don’t think I’m smart enough (42% compared to 31%).
Aspirations for a STEM career in the future
Girls were half as likely as boys to aspire to a career in STEM – this is similar to previous surveys. 22% of girls wanted a STEM career compared to 43% of boys.
In the 2021–22 survey, 21% of girls wanted a STEM career, compared to 42% of boys.
The most popular STEM career girls aspired to was scientist (8%). For boys it was computing or IT (17%), followed by engineer (16%), scientist (7%) and data analyst (7%).
Girls from these diversity groups were more likely to aspire to a STEM career:
- metropolitan locations: 24% of girls wanted a STEM career, compared to 19% of girls from regional/rural areas
- culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds: 30% of girls wanted a STEM career, compared to 18% of girls from non-CALD backgrounds.
20% of First Nations girls aspired to a career in STEM – only slightly lower than non-First Nations girls at 22%.
Comparison of key items across surveys
Compare interest, importance, confidence, and gender bias of girls and boys across time (across multiple occurences of the survey).
Gender bias – which gender is better at STEM subjects
When asked which gender is ‘better’ at STEM subjects, most young people do not hold a gender bias.
Despite the majority holding no gender bias, there has been a significant increase in gender bias for all STEM subjects in 2023–24. As shown in the table below, significantly lower proportions of respondents said that neither gender is better at each subject.
| Neither girls or boys are better at… | 2021–22 survey | 2023–24 survey |
|---|---|---|
| Science | 74% | 69% |
| Technology | 68% | 63% |
| Engineering | 64% | 58% |
| Mathematics | 72% | 68% |
There are similarities between responses from girls and boys on this question. Science is the subject with the highest agreement that girls are ‘better’. 19% of girls said girls were better at science, and 14% of boys also said girls were better at science.
Engineering is the opposite – it’s the subject with the highest agreement from both genders that boys are ‘better’ (30% of girls said this and 44% of boys).
Understanding the STEM acronym
Understanding of what subjects make up STEM significantly increased in the current survey. This was driven by a significant increase in the proportion of boys who understand the term ‘STEM’ correctly compared to 2021–22. It is the first time since this survey program began in 2018–19 that boys’ understanding of the STEM acronym is equal to girls’, and not lower.
- 71% of girls understood what subjects made up STEM, compared to 67% in 2021–22.
- 71% of boys understood what subjects made up STEM, compared to 62% in 2021–22.
Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted young people in multiple ways.
In the previous survey (2021–22), 38% of young people said they had reconsidered their study and career options as a direct result of COVID-19. Boys were most likely to have been influenced by COVID-19 compared to girls (40% and 35% respectively).
Young people also reported they were more likely to consider future study or work in STEM because of COVID-19. 20% of girls said they were likely to choose STEM subjects because of the pandemic, compared to 16% of boys.
Following from this, the current survey (2022–23) aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the longer-term. Young people in years 11 and 12 (who were in years 8 to 10 during the pandemic) were asked about the influence COVID-19 had had on them and their life choices.
A third of these students said the pandemic did not influence their life or choices (35%). The proportion of boys reporting this (39%) was slightly, but not statistically, higher than girls (31%).
The main impact of the pandemic was reported to be a change in general interests (27%), while 17% said they now have different aspirations for the future. Girls were slightly more likely to experience a change in aspirations (22% compared to 13% of boys). In relation to wellbeing, a quarter of young people surveyed (24%) said their mental health has gotten worse.
Impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI)
For the first time in 2022–23, respondents were asked about their perceptions of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the influence on choices about their future. It is clear that young people feel influenced by this technology.
The survey asked whether young people believe that generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) would have a significant impact on work and careers in the future. Eight in ten young people (82%) said they did believe this.
29% of young people also agreed that recent developments in AI have made them reconsider their study or career choices. 8% of young people were reconsidering their study choices, 10% were reconsidering their career, while 11% were reconsidering both their study choices and career.
Boys were significantly more likely to say that AI had made them reconsider their prospects across both study and career (35% compared to 23% of girls). They were more likely to say they were reconsidering their study choices (10% compared to 7% of girls), and reconsidering their career (13% compared to 7%).
About the data
The 2023–24 Youth in STEM research was a survey of 2,948 young people aged between 12 and 25 years. It was the fourth survey in the program, it followed Youth in STEM surveys in 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2021–22.
See further insights into this data in Perceptions and attitudes to STEM among gender diverse youth.
The survey asked questions to understand young peoples’ awareness and perception of STEM subjects and careers. Respondents came from all states and territories across Australia.
To ensure survey results represented the population, weighting corrected for under- or over-representation of sub-groups by gender, age, location, country of birth and socioeconomic status (SEIFA 1–5 low socioeconomic status, SEIFA 6–10 high socioeconomic status).
Our department commissioned YouthInsight to carry out this survey. In 2022–23, they surveyed parents, teachers and career advisers to complement the youth survey.
Refer to the 2023–24 Youth in STEM survey report for more detailed information and project methodology.
Read the previous Youth in STEM survey report for 2021–22.
Read about our methodology.