“Wellbeing isn’t about how much money we have or how many kilometers we can run, or other things that can be directly measured. It’s a feeling.”—Dr Kate Lycett, lead researcher, Australian Unity Wellbeing Index
Key points
- Wellbeing relates to our quality of life, and it is shaped by our subjective evaluation of our life and our objective circumstances, such as education, health and income.
- The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is one of the longest running national studies of subjective wellbeing in the world.
- Research shows there are numerous health, professional, family and economic benefits that are associated with people having greater wellbeing.
Wellbeing is a term that gets bandied about a lot these days—often in conjunction with sipping green smoothies and meditating at sunrise.
But the study and measurement of wellbeing is so much more than just practising wellness. It goes to the very core of how we feel about our lives as a whole. And it matters enormously—for individuals, society and the nation.
So what is wellbeing, and how can we achieve wellbeing in Australia?
Subjective wellbeing: a definition
Wellbeing relates to our overall quality of life, encompassing both the subjective evaluation of our lives and our objective circumstances, such as education, health and income.
Dr Kate Lycett, the lead researcher of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, describes subjective wellbeing as a “feeling”.
“Wellbeing isn’t about how much money we have or how many kilometers we can run, or other things that can be directly measured. It’s a feeling.” That’s why, she says it’s harder to measure. “But it’s really important that we do, because how we feel about our lives is the essence of what makes a good life.”
Subjective wellbeing is also personal. What makes one person feel content or happy can differ markedly from what makes the next person feel that way—yet the two people could have similarly high levels of wellbeing.
And, while happiness is part of wellbeing, it’s important to differentiate between the two concepts, says Kate.
“Subjective wellbeing involves an evaluation that uses cognition—people think about both the internal and external resources they have. It’s an appraisal of what matters to you, but also the objective things that impact how you feel.
“Happiness can be a sudden feeling of joy, but it can fade quite quickly. Subjective wellbeing is a more stable construct.”
Winning some money in the lottery or watching your football team score might bring a surge of happiness, but that feeling tends not to stay elevated for long. Subjective wellbeing, by contrast, relates to a broader sense of satisfaction and contentment with life that remains more stable over time.
It’s for this reason that the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index focuses on subjective wellbeing rather than happiness—although for ease of understanding, we simplify the term to “wellbeing” in line with its everyday use.
Why wellbeing matters
Research from around the world, including the extensive research conducted by Deakin University as part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, shows that wellbeing matters a lot—for individuals, communities and the nation.
All aspects of wellbeing shape our lives, from the quality of our relationships and health to whether we have enough money. These types of wellbeing, alongside other life areas such as our sense of purpose, connection to community, personal safety and security, all interplay on our overall satisfaction with life.
Kate says the research points to the numerous health, professional, family and economic benefits associated with people having greater wellbeing.
“If you have better wellbeing, you’re more likely to have better physical and mental health, and decreased risk of disease, injury and illness.”
People also have better immune functioning when their health and wellbeing is higher—they’re more likely to recover from illness if they do get sick, and they’re more likely to live longer.
“If we think about participation in society, we need people to have high levels of wellbeing. People who have low levels of wellbeing will not participate—and not just in the economy, which so often gets talked about, but in the community and in their social ties,” says Kate.
The wellbeing economy
Wellbeing, the research makes clear isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s fundamental to how we function. And the world is taking notice, with governments and economies around the globe increasingly recognising that improving people’s wellbeing should sit at the heart of economic and policy decision-making.
“A wellbeing economy is all about putting people and planet at the heart of the economy—at the centre of the decisions we make,” says Kate about the importance of wellbeing.
Where Australia’s and much of the world’s current models measure success based on endless economic growth, a wellbeing economy shifts the focus to how people are actually thriving.
“Currently we are still relying on gross domestic product (GDP) as our marker to evaluate how we’re doing as a society—we aren’t actually thinking about whether the things we’re creating are harmful to people and the planet in the long term.”
Wellbeing matters because it touches every aspect of how we live—and when people thrive, it creates a ripple effect that benefits individuals and society as a whole.
