New Poll Shows Respect, Kindness and Egalitarianism Top the List of Australian Values.
What does it mean to be Australian? A new DemosAU poll of 1,027 people reveals that values like respect, kindness, and treating others equally is what makes someone Australian.
Respondents were asked an open-ended poll that allowed them to describe what they thought were Australian values.
Once categorised the results were as follows: Respect & Kindness topped the list (25%), Egalitarianism (23%), Community (17%), Mateship and Friendship (14%) and Peaceful coexistence (13%).
Freedom came in at 10%, multiculturalism and diversity 8% and Australian Values have Disappeared 5%. Christian values was at the bottom of the list (1%).
A total of 11% of respondents reported “don’t know.”
Demographic Variations
There were only slight differences amongst gender and income levels but amongst age, there was more fluctuation.
Younger Australians were more likely to name respect and kindness as their top Australian value (32%), compared to 20% for people aged 55+.
Mateship and friendship were not as prominent among young Australians; only 8% reported it as an Australian value compared with 16% for both 35-54 year olds and people aged 55+.
Older Australians reported egalitarianism as the Australian value they most identified with (26%) compared to 18-34 year olds (17%).
DemosAU Head of Research George Hasanakos said it was an important question to ask ourselves.
“Our values define us – they show us who we are and what matters to us,’’ he said.
“In politics it can be easy to focus on what divides us, but these results show what unites us and what makes us Australian.
“As we can see, many Australians identify with values like respect, kindness, equality, community, mateship and friendship – not the often highly charged issues that generate the most attention on social media”
“That’s who we are as Australians and that’s very positive for living in a peaceful society.”
Mr Hasanakos said DemosAU decided to ask an open-ended question to allow respondents to answer in their own words, rather than providing them with a short-list of values to choose from. The responses were categorised by the DemosAU team with the assistance of AI.
About this report
The poll of 1,027 Australians was conducted via internet panels from 5 to 6 January 2026 with an effective margin of error of +/- 4.0%.
Note: Percentage totals may exceed 100% as answers may be assigned multiple categories.
Sign up to our mailing list to stay up to date on the latest in Australian polling and market research.
