Overview

• The 2025 National Kids in Pain Report estimates roughly 877,000 children—about one in five—experience pain lasting longer than three months.
• Families report long diagnostic delays and dismissal, with 64% waiting over three years and many told symptoms were anxiety, growing pains or attention-seeking.
• Schooling is heavily disrupted, with 83% missing classes and more than half falling behind, alongside high rates of sleep problems and anxiety.
• Specialist access is scarce, with only nine paediatric pain clinics nationwide and none in Tasmania or the Northern Territory.
• Policy responses are fragmented, as New South Wales issued new guidance for specialised services in 2025 while a federal shift to a broad chronic-conditions approach risks sidelining paediatric pain; the report urges alignment with WHO recognition and cites a A$15 billion annual cost.