The Need for a Comprehensive Survey of Youth Wellbeing in the Northern Territory

There is a lack of comprehensive data available to measure the wellbeing of young people in the Northern Territory which means that programs and policies are developed largely without an evidence base negatively impacting on the relevance and sustainability of these programs. This paper argues that there is a need for a comprehensive survey to be conducted which addresses current gaps in data collection particularly in relationship to the measurement of wellbeing of young people. The need to measure wellbeing is discussed. The types of wellbeing measures and measurement frameworks which could be used are described and recommendations made for the development of a survey.