Australian Unity Wellbeing Index

Australian Unity, in partnership with the Australian Centre on Quality of Life at Deakin University, regularly measure how satisfied Australians are with their lives and life in Australia.

It investigates satisfaction with economic, environmental and social conditions in Australia, as well as giving ongoing insights into our perceptions of individual wellbeing.

This page presents further information on the index. To access previous findings, please select from the drop down list under ‘Past Results’.

	Results at a glance
	What is the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index?
	What is ‘wellbeing’ and how does the index measure it?
	Why do we measure subjective wellbeing?
	Who is involved in the research?
	Why has Australian Unity developed the index?
	Comprehensive and reliable data
	Contact us with your queries

'Wealth and wellbeing' - Australian Unity's Managing Director, Mr Rohan Mead speaks on Radio National about the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index and the age old question…does money equal happiness? Click here to read an excerpt of the interview...

Results at a glance

Question	Survey 12 Oct 04	Survey 13 Jul 05	Survey 14 Oct 05	Survey 15 May 06	Survey 16 Oct 06	Survey 17 April 07	Survey 18 Oct 07	Survey 18.1* Feb 08	Survey 19 Apr / May 08
Personal Wellbeing
Aspects of life
- standard of living	79.22	77.20	77.02	76.28	77.94	78.25	78.33	78.12	76.3
- health	74.51	74.22	75.68	74.25	74.66	74.78	75.12	75.19	74.9
- achievements in life	73.53	71.60	73.22	72.26	73.18	73.23	73.51	73.06	72.54
- personal relationships	81.39	77.32	78.59	78.11	77.95	79.23	79.22	77.18	78.65
- how safe you feel	80.12	79.01	79.29	79.03	77.83	80.12	80.19	80.01	79.29
- community connectedness	72.55	69.69	71.23	69.61	69.58	70.82	71.12	71.70	70.44
- future security	73.02	70.00	71.36	69.20	70.02	72.39	73.01	73.17	71.09
- Spirituality/religion	-	-	-	-	-	74.65	72.02	-	71.52
Personal wellbeing index	76.30	74.64	75.26	74.11	74.46	75.58	75.81	75.59	74.80
National Wellbeing
Aspects of life
- economic situation	68.47	66.29	66.86	66.05	66.68	68.19	70.88	-	62.41
- state of the environment	59.60	59.36	60.84	58.59	55.83	55.96	58.39	-	59.11
- social conditions	63.13	61.16	63.13	60.53	60.01	61.96	62.35	-	61.92
- how Australia is governed	55.03	54.66	53.70	53.31	52.61	53.97	56.10	-	61.45
- business	63.40	60.52	63.41	62.43	61.34	62.70	64.67	-	62.50
- national security	66.28	65.06	65.30	65.15	64.49	67.72	69.61	-	70.86
National wellbeing index	62.68	62.24	62.26	61.18	60.12	61.77	63.72	-	63.01
Likelihood of terrorist attack in Australia
% Who think it likely	59.70	44.90	73.40	59.90	61.90	62.50%	49.40	-	46.4
Strength of likelihood	62.56	62.35	69.96	67.21	67.91	66.20%	66.51	-	65.70

What is the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index?

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a comprehensive measure of personal and national wellbeing. Unlike traditional economic indicators of quality of life such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a subjective measure that investigates how Australians feel about their life and life in Australia. The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index rates our satisfaction with various aspects of life – both personal aspects such as our relationships with others and national aspects such as our satisfaction with government.

While every survey examines personal and national wellbeing, each one also investigates a particular issue of social importance to Australians and its impact on wellbeing. Every survey involves a fresh national sample of 2000 people, that proportionately represents Australia’s geographically-diverse population. All survey participants are aged 18 years and over.

Contrary to popular belief, wellbeing is different from ‘happiness’. Happiness can come and go in a moment, whereas wellbeing is a more stable state of being well, feeling satisfied and contented.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is based on average levels of satisfaction with various aspects of personal and national life. Satisfaction is expressed as a percentage score, where 0% is completely dissatisfied and 100% is completely satisfied. So a survey score of 76.5% on personal wellbeing means Australians, on average, feel 76.5% satisfied with their life.

Elements of the Personal Wellbeing Index are satisfaction with:

• Your health;
• Your personal relationships;
• How safe you feel;
• Your standard of living;
• What you are achieving in life;
• Feeling part of the community; and
• Your future security.

Elements of the National Wellbeing Index are satisfaction with:

• Australian social conditions;
• Australian economic situation;
• The state of the Australian environment;
• Australian business;
• National security; and
• Government.

Why do we measure subjective wellbeing?

Measures of how ‘well’ we are doing as a nation have conventionally been based on economic considerations such as Gross Domestic Product, employment rates and housing prices. However, in an era when Australians are richer than ever, more than one million adults and 100,000 young people are experiencing depression every year. The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index investigates additional factors impacting on our lives, filling the void not covered by economic considerations and producing a complete view of Australians’ wellbeing.

It also informs public debate about the sort of society we want to live in. It provides community organisations, government and business decision-makers with a credible measure of wellbeing for purposes ranging from strategic planning and policy making to providing every-day Australians with information they can use to improve their personal wellbeing. It engenders increasing awareness of important social issues impacting on the wellbeing of Australians.

The index is based on a working hypothesis that proposes wellbeing below a ‘normative range’ indicates a higher propensity to developing clinical depression. When people’s demands exceed their resources, this causes wellbeing to fall below the normative range. The index is therefore extremely useful at identifying groups of people in society whose demands are exceeding their resources and who require extra assistance if they are to avoid depression.

Who is involved in the research?

Australian Unity developed the index in partnership with Deakin University and in close conjunction with researchers from other Australian scientific and educational institutions.

Why has Australian Unity developed the index?

Australian Unity is a national health, financial services and retirement living company with a proud 165-year history. Australian Unity is committed to making genuine contributions to society. The index is a demonstration of this commitment, by investigating aspects that are impacting on the lives of every-day Australians.

Comprehensive and reliable data

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index database contains more than 28,000 records. A parallel and derivative project, supported by both Australian Unity and the Australian Research Council, follows-up about 5,000 people on an annual basis. This information is used to form special reports and comparisons between different groups within our society.

The ongoing nature of the surveys has also revealed the extreme reliability of the data. The personal wellbeing of Australian’s can be predicted within less than one percentage point assuming that no major international event such as terrorist attack or Olympic Games occurs immediately around the survey period.

Professor Bob Cummins, author of the index, also heads the International Wellbeing Group. This involves over 100 researchers from more than 45 countries in an effort to understand personal wellbeing as reported by people from different cultural backgrounds. Through this, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is making a unique contribution to understanding subjective wellbeing in an international context.

In 2004, The International Society for Quality of Life Studies awarded Professor Cummins and colleagues 'Best Paper' in that society's flagship journal Social Indicators Research. This paper describes the theoretical basis for the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, and its various findings since 2001.

The index was also a winner of the Victorian Public Health Award – Excellence in Public Health Capacity Building in 2004. This award is in recognition of identifying a public health need and building an effective function to meet that need.

Contact us
Contact us with your queries about the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index.