The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index report

For 25 years, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index has examined the personal and national wellbeing of the nation. 

The Index provides an annual insight into the wellbeing of the Australians and how we collectively feel over time.

Created in partnership with Deakin University, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a comprehensive measure of adult subjective wellbeing, and one of the longest running wellbeing surveys in the world.

We conducted our first national survey in 2001, and since then, we’ve interviewed nearly 100,000 Australians. The findings from the Index informs and influences academia, government, business, media and the community.

Today, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommend the Index. Countries including Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Iceland and Finland are now incorporating wellbeing measures into their national budgets and policies.

Wellbeing, at its heart, is subjective—it’s different for everyone. It’s more than just health. Wellbeing relies on a range of factors that work together to support life satisfaction.

Contrary to popular belief, wellbeing isn’t the same as happiness. Happiness can come and go in a moment, but wellbeing is more stable—it’s about feeling satisfied and content.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index assesses Australians’ satisfaction with their lives and their attitude towards life in Australia. We do this by looking into different ‘domains’ —the life areas that contribute to our personal and national wellbeing.

The seven personal wellbeing domains are: 

• relationships
• achieving in life (a sense of purpose)
• standard of living (including finances)
• health
• community connectedness
• personal safety
• and future security.

The six national wellbeing domains include the:

• economic situation
• natural environment
• social conditions
• government
• business
• and national security.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is unique because of its history. It shows the pulse of the nation and how we are tracking collectively as communities and as a nation.

This means we can show you a deeper picture of life and wellbeing in Australia—both personal and national.

Whether you are curious about your own wellbeing or interested in how Australia is tracking, you can jump into the data or read our articles right now.

Typically we measure how well we’re doing as a nation through traditional economics—GDP, employment rates, housing prices. But in an era when Australians are richer than ever, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index looks at what else matters. We investigate the factors that traditional economics doesn’t cover, giving a more complete picture of wellbeing.

This research informs public debate about Australian society. It provides organisations, government and business with a credible measure of wellbeing, and Australians can use the information to improve their personal wellbeing. But most importantly, it increases awareness of important social issues impacting on the wellbeing of Australians.  

Australian Unity is committed to making genuine contributions to society. The Index is a demonstration of this commitment, by investigating factors that impact on the lives of every-day Australians. 

Deakin University runs the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index using rigorous methods to ensure our research is trustworthy.

Academic rigour

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is one of the world’s longest-running surveys of subjective wellbeing conducted at a national level. It is an academic study that follows rigorous standards, with each survey being approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Deakin University.

Each year a team of academics from Deakin University’s School of Psychology is responsible for data analysis and interpretation of the results.

Research method

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is a national survey of a geographically representative sample of English-speaking Australian adults, aged 18 years and over.

Each survey aims for aims for gender representation that reflects the national population.

The age composition of the sample has not been actively managed, but has yielded a breakdown similar to that of the national population, as determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For the first 14 years of data collection, surveys were conducted between two and four times per year. They now run annually.

Historically, approximately 2,000 participants have been contacted via phone for each survey, with interviews typically lasting around 10 to 12 minutes. In 2018, the recruitment methodology changed from calling mostly landline numbers to calling only mobile phones, reflecting changes in telecommunication trends.

In 2024, we used two different methodologies: an interviewer-administered phone survey and a self-completed online survey. This dual-frame sample methodology was designed to assist our transition to online data collection. The phone sample, recruited via random-digit dialling, enables results to be compared to our historical data to see changes in wellbeing over time. The online sample marks a shift to our new methodology via Australia’s only national probability-based online panel, Life in Australia™.

In 2025, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey was conducted entirely online, surveying 10,041 adults across Australia. The large sample was supplemented with the application of Small Area Estimation to provide robust estimates of personal and national wellbeing at the Commonwealth Electoral Division (federal electorate) level. These estimates are designed to give a more precise, localised and detailed picture of wellbeing across Australia.

Presentation

All personal and national wellbeing data is converted to a percentage of scale maximum score, which standardises the results to a 0-100 percentage point scale.