Australia

THE BIG ISSUE AUSTRALIA

An initiative of The Big Issue Australia, Community Street Soccer operates in 25 locations throughout the country, covering all states and territories.

Street Soccer promotes social inclusion, personal change and positive health outcomes for players.

The programme provides a safe and welcoming environment, with staff providing players with links to support services within the community.

ORGANISATION DETAILS

PARTICIPANTS

Men, women and non-binary people experiencing homelessness, marginalisation and disadvantage.

LOCATIONS

25 locations across all Australian states, including one correctional facility.

Country statistics

10 out of 189 in Human Development Index rankings (UNDP, 2022)

Average annual salary per person $63,150 (World Bank, 2023)

13.4% of the population lives below the poverty line (CIA Factbook, 2020)

Australia is a developed, resource-rich democratic island nation with a population of just under 27 million (The World Factbook, 2025). 86% of its population lives in urban, coastal areas (CIA Factbook, 2023).

While Australia is ranked 10th in the world for health, access to knowledge, and standard of living (UNDP, 2025), there is significant and growing economic disparity. More than 120,000 people experience homelessness in Australia on any given night (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021), of which almost 25,000 are First Nations Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021). Another 1.5 million experience housing stress (Homes for Homes, 2025).

Men are more likely to experience homelessness than women. However, women over 55 years of age represent the fastest growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness in the country (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2025) due to a gender-based earnings gap and for reasons such as marriage breakdown.

Australia faces some serious human rights issues. Its First Nations population is overrepresented in the criminal justice system and faces lower life expectancy (just under 72 and 76 years for men and women, respectively, and below the national average of 77.5 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021)), and the country’s government has enacted harsh policies for treating people seeking asylum (Human Rights Watch, 2025).

More than 248,000 people were internally displaced in Australia in 2023, a figure set to rise as Australia is a country affected by natural disasters and one of the countries that stands to be most affected by climate change (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2025). The number of people experiencing homelessness is also increasing due to nation-wide shortages of affordable housing (Australian Homelessness Monitor, 2024).

Melbourne hosted the Homeless World Cup in 2008 in the city’s Federation Square.