DemosAU has launched its first major social research project with the release of the inaugural DemosAU Australian Wellbeing Index (AWI).

Based on a survey of 4,263 Australians, DemosAU studied Australians’ views on life satisfaction and wellbeing across five key components: economic; health; social; environmental; and democratic.

DemosAU Director Evan Schwarten said the index would track sentiment over time to analyse whether Australians’ quality of life is improving or declining.

“We want to be able to measure how Australians are really doing beyond just economic statistics, and look at overall wellbeing including health, social connections, environment, democracy and also our economic wellbeing.

“Over time, we’ll be able to say whether life is getting better or worse for Australians, and for specific demographic cohorts.”

The inaugural report shows a Life Satisfaction Score of 61 (based on 0-100 scale where 0 indicates low satisfaction and 100 indicates high).  

The AWI score across the five wellbeing components resulted in a score of 58, using the same scale as above.

Demographic breakdowns including gender, income, education, housing status, voting intention and location.

The results show life satisfaction and wellbeing rise sharply with income, with income being the clearest indicator of strong wellbeing.

People on lower incomes had the highest levels of dissatisfaction with their lives and ranked their wellbeing the worst, while those earning over $200,000 report significantly higher life satisfaction.

Amongst voting intention, major party voters were much more likely to report higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction than One Nation voters and ‘Other’ voters.

The report shows Australians who are more satisfied with their lives not only earn more money but they live in the city and have higher education levels.

People with postgraduate degrees report the highest levels of wellbeing, while those with TAFE qualifications or who did not finish high school report the lowest.

Those living in regional and rural areas are less satisfied and have lower levels of wellbeing compared to those in metro areas.

Director of Research George Hasanakos said the results show Australians are doing reasonably well on average but there was “massive inequality.”

“Overall Australians are fairly satisfied with their lives and record decent levels of wellbeing, but there are many cohorts in society who say their wellbeing isn’t so good.

“Life satisfaction is unevenly distributed, with higher scores among older, wealthier and economically secure Australians as well as homeowners.

“Younger adults, people with disabilities, renters, and those facing financial pressure, report substantially lower satisfaction with life.

He said financial pressure continues to shape how people judge their lives overall. 

“These patterns suggest that lived economic security and health are central to how Australians evaluate their lives as a whole.

The report shows Australians feel strongest about their health, relationships and environment, but economic wellbeing ranked the lowest of all five wellbeing categories.

For more information, check out the report.

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