One in every 33 Australian kids receives child protection services and the number continues to soar, a new study shows.
More than 162,000 people aged under 18 received child protection services in the past financial year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The vast majority of these children - almost three-quarters - were repeat clients.
The total number has climbed by 10,000 children every year for the past three years.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be vastly over-represented, and were seven times more likely as non-indigenous children to receive child protection services.
Children from very remote areas are four times more likely than those in major cities.
Emotional abuse and neglect were the most common types of substantiated abuse and neglect, the AIHW found in a report released on Thursday.
Kids who received child protection services were either the subject of an investigation, on a "care and protection" order, and/or in out-of-home care.
Notifications are considered "substantiated" when an investigation finds there is reason to believe the child has been, is being, or is likely to be abused, neglected or harmed.
The majority of child protection recipients (60 per cent) were the subject of an investigation only.
But 24 per cent were on both an order and in out-of-home care, while nine per cent were involved in all three compontents of the system, the AIHW said.
