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In an earlier post I shared the age profile of Australian Born Chinese (ABCs) from the 2011 ABS census (see previous post). And we’ve also seen that on the whole, younger ABCs tend to stick around rather than relocate overseas (see previous post).

Today I thought I’d focus in on a very significant part of that age profile from the 2011 ABS census – the section from 0 years to about 18 years of age.

You’ll notice that the section of that age profile that corresponds to primary schoolers and high schoolers – from 6 years to 18 years of age – and that part of the age profile is relatively flat. See the red box in the diagram below.

This means that at the moment, the number of ABCs in each of the years of both primary and high school is about the same.

However the future for schools ministry is something else entirely… notice the red box in this next diagram. It shows a steady increase in the number of ABCs born over the last six years. These kids haven’t hit school yet – but they will.

It may already seem in some suburbs that there are a lot of Chinese kids in schools. But in the future, our primary schools, and after that our high schools are going to see a growth in the number of ABCs that will mean an increase of at least 50% to the ABC population of schools – and that trend shows no sign of slowing down.

The question is: will Chinese churches have gotten involved in schools ministry? will they have connected with their communities and establish avenues for unreached ABC kids and their families to hear about Jesus?