Wellbeing Reaches Record High As Australians Feel Positive About Their Future

Wellbeing Reaches Record High as Australians Feel Positive About Their Future

New research has revealed that Australians' wellbeing has increased to equal the highest value ever recorded over nine years of research--reached only once before at the time of the 2004 Olympics.

According to the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, wellbeing, which has recorded
76.3 on a 100 point scale, has increased because people are more satisfied with their future security and standard of living.

Steve Davis, general manager of Australian Unity Personal Financial Services, says that it is likely that satisfaction with future security is tied to the economy.

"Satisfaction with future security has risen significantly since our last survey in May and it seems evident that the economy is dominating people's views of their future," Mr Davis says.

"This research shows that satisfaction with future security, like the stock market, has recovered much of its lost ground and is now among the highest values we've ever seen."

Satisfaction with standard of living has also risen significantly and is now at the highest level ever recorded.

"This record high is remarkable in that it doesn't appear to have been triggered by a specific event other than a gradually recovering economy," Mr Davis says.

Australians' sentiment about their standard of living has been steadily improving since April 2008 after it started to fall in October 2007--a movement that has preceded the rise in the All Ordinaries Index by about 12 months.

"It is interesting that our satisfaction with standard of living started to recover before the stock market picked up. One reason for this could be that the various economic stimulus packages released by the Government provided households with additional discretional income," Mr Davis says.

"Another reason could be reduced interest rates. Although a lot of people lost investment wealth in the downturn, as long as they didn't lose their job or take a substantial pay cut, many people may have been better off due to lower mortgage repayments."

Professor Bob Cummins from Deakin University, author of the Index, says that the current level of heightened wellbeing is particularly extraordinary because it hasn't been triggered by a national event.

"The only time the wellbeing of the population has ever been so high was at the time of the 2004 Olympics. At this time, the elated emotions of the nation at the amazing success of our athletes no doubt enhanced our wellbeing," Professor Cummins says.

"This current result, however, has received no such short term emotional boost,
making the record high level of personal wellbeing in Australia all the more
extraordinary."

In addition to investigating personal wellbeing the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index also examines national wellbeing, looking at aspects such as satisfaction with the economic situation and satisfaction with business.

"Our research shows that national wellbeing has also risen significantly and is now at the highest level yet recorded. This sudden increase reverses a trend of decreasing national wellbeing that ran from October 2007 through to May 2009," Professor Cummins says.

Mr Davis says that it is particularly promising that satisfaction with the economic situation has shown a significant increase, returning to the same level that it has been for much of the past nine years.

"Australians' satisfaction with the economic situation showed a precipitous fall between October 2007 and October 2008, which was almost certainly tied to the major fall in the stock market and the very real risk that there might be a catastrophic collapse of global banking and financial systems, which could have led to a global depression. We have now seen the risk to financial systems recede, the Australian economy demonstrating remarkable resilience and the stock market staging a dramatic recovery," Mr Davis says.

"What the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index research shows us is that Australians are confident that the worst of the financial crisis is behind us and that we can perhaps look forward to recovering the wealth that was lost in the downturn."

Wellbeing is measured using the Personal Wellbeing Index. The Personal Wellbeing Index measures people's overall feeling of wellbeing through satisfaction with their health, personal relationships, personal safety, standard of living, achieving in life, community connection, future security and spirituality or religion.

For further information, or to arrange an interview with Professor Cummins or Mr Davis, please contact:

Abdi Noor
Head of Public Affairs and Communications
t 03 8682 6777
m 0429 187 105
e [email protected]

Amy McAlister
Communications and PR Officer
t 03 8682 6768
e [email protected]


SOURCE: Australian Unity