This study presents survey data for 1971-72 on young Australian people aged 15-24 who leave school. Members of the armed forces, diplomatic personnel, the institutionalized, and those reported as permanently unable to work are not included. Data are collated on slightly less than 110,000 dropouts, and do not represent the detail sought by many concerning this population. Nine chapters, as follows, constitute the study: the enquiry and the data, age at leaving, grade at leaving, time of leaving, estimated ability and destination, and a concluding statement in which differences between sexes, between regions, between types of schools, and in father's occupation are examined. Tables appended present summaries of detailed tabulations. Among other findings, the report is said to confirm the apparent disproportion between percentages of children from professional and semi-professional homes and from semi-skilled and unskilled homes entering occupations or destinations of differing social status, or requiring different levels of education for entry and leading to different levels of living. (Author/AM)