THE falling rates of students, especially girls, studying maths in senior high school is ''very worrying'' and a risk to Australia's future economic prosperity, Reserve Bank board member Heather Ridout has warned.

A range of industry and political leaders expressed alarm yesterday at a new study showing the proportion of girls not studying maths for their HSC had more than tripled in a decade, while the number of boys taking the subject had also fallen dramatically.

Huge opportunities ... civil engineering student Roslyn Florie-George took advanced maths for the HSC.

''I think we have a problem with mathematics study, full stop. This is an economic threat to Australia,'' said Ms Ridout, former head of the Australian Industry Group. ''We're going into this economy where the sciences are going to be more and more important, and it's vital that women have those skills.''

Dr Rachel Wilson, a senior lecturer in educational assessment at the University of Sydney who helped to prepare the report, said if there is not a major cultural shift in the way mathematics is valued, Australia risks falling behind other developed countries.