Australians’ satisfaction with life is at its lowest level in two decades
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-lycett-500671">Kate Lycett</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/georgie-frykberg-1422532">Georgie Frykberg</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mallery-crowe-1347393">Mallery Crowe</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tanja-capic-1351103">Tanja Capic</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p>
<p>Australians’ satisfaction with life as a whole is at its lowest level in 21 years, according to the latest <a href="https://www.acqol.com.au/uploads/surveys/survey-039-report.pdf">Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey</a>, a collaboration between Deakin University and mutual company Australian Unity.</p>
<p>Each year since 2001, we survey a geographically representative sample of 2,000 Australians about how satisfied they are with their lives as a whole, along with their satisfaction with seven key life areas to compile an overall measure: the Personal Wellbeing Index.</p>
<p>Our survey was conducted in May and June of 2022, by which time inflation was <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/jun-2022">exceeding 6%</a> and the Reserve Bank of Australia had delivered the <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/cash-rate/">first two</a> of ten consecutive interest rate rises. There have <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-has-fallen-but-one-or-two-more-interest-rate-rises-are-still-likely-204269">now been 11</a> since May 2022.</p>
<p>In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, we actually saw an improvement in satisfaction with life as a whole. The decline since likely reflects pressures like cost of living but also conforms with a longer-term trend since 2010.</p>
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<h2>Measuring personal wellbeing</h2>
<p>Our composite measure, the Personal Wellbeing Index, incorporates seven life areas: standard of living, relationships, purpose in life, community connectedness, safety, health and future security. We combine these <a href="https://www.acqol.com.au/uploads/pwi-a/pwi-a-english.pdf">using an internationally regarded method</a> to generate an index score out of 100.</p>
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<p>This composite has been pretty stable over the survey’s 21 years, with average scores ranging between 74 and 77.</p>
<p>But small shifts are significant because we do not expect to ever see big ones. This is due, principally, to a type of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-charts-on-australian-well-being-and-the-surprising-effects-of-the-pandemic-183537">psychological homeostasis</a>” whereby most people will ride out the highs and lows of their lives and maintain a relatively positive outlook regardless of the circumstances.</p>
<p>Also, as an average, different factors can counterbalance each other. You can get a better sense of this from the following graph, which shows the constituent elements of the Personal Wellbeing Index.</p>
<p>This shows a long-term increase in feelings of personal safety but long-term declines in the average measures of health and purpose in life, with relatively steep declines since 2021 in standard of living, future security and community connectedness.</p>
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<h2>Wellbeing and low incomes</h2>
<p>For Australia’s poor, 2020 unexpectedly had a silver lining when the federal government temporarily doubled JobSeeker payments. This likely explains the jump in wellbeing scores recorded in 2020 for those with household incomes of less than $30,000. But with those extra payments ending (in March 2021) and the increases in living costs since, the average wellbeing score for poor people has plummeted.</p>
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<h2>Differences by age</h2>
<p>Those aged 76 and older reported the highest average wellbeing (78.7 out of 100), and those aged 18-25 the lowest – though not by much, with their score (72.5) being just below those aged 46-55 years (73.2).</p>
<p>The average wellbeing score for 18- to 25-year-olds was the lowest in 21 years. It likely reflects higher feelings of anxiety, stress, depression and climate worry (also measured in our survey) among this age group.</p>
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<h2>Creating a wellbeing economy</h2>
<p>Given the ongoing uncertainties and cost-of-living pressures that we now face, there’s every reason to expect Australians’ wellbeing to now be even lower than when our survey was conducted.</p>
<p>It underscores the importance of considering wellbeing in policy decisions, particularly for groups that are struggling the most.</p>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-lycett-500671">Kate Lycett</a>, NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/georgie-frykberg-1422532">Georgie Frykberg</a>, Project Coordinator, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mallery-crowe-1347393">Mallery Crowe</a>, Epidemiologist & Project Officer, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tanja-capic-1351103">Tanja Capic</a>, PhD candidate, Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p>
<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-satisfaction-with-life-is-at-its-lowest-level-in-two-decades-205008">original article</a>.</em></p>
