Australia’s life dissatisfaction levels double as ‘wellbeing poverty’ reaches new highs | Australian economy

About 2.2 million Australians aged 15 and over live below the welfare poverty line, and the share of people reporting very low life satisfaction has doubled over the past decade.

By 2025, 9.7%, or nearly one in 10 Australians, rated their overall satisfaction with life at four out of 10 or lower, according to Guardian Australia’s analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) general social survey.

The rate is one in 20, or 4.8%, reporting very low overall life satisfaction in 2014.

The first spike in Australians reporting dissatisfaction with their lives came during the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and has continued in the intervening years despite the rising cost of living.

The ABS data mirrors other surveys such as Westpac’s consumer confidence index, which has languished at nearly 50-year lows since it failed to recover from the blow of the pandemic.

ABS figures show that at a time when support for far-right and populist policies is rising, those who report life satisfaction scores of four or below are more likely to feel alienated and powerless in their communities and less supportive of multiculturalism.

Only 15% of people experiencing welfare poverty feel they have a say in important issues affecting their community, compared to an average of 32% across all Australians. The percentage of people who feel they have a voice in their community rises to a high of 46% among those who report overall life satisfaction of nine or more.

While One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has made headlines for advocating a “monocultural” society, ABS data shows that just over 60% of people in the lowest life satisfaction bracket agree that it is a good thing for society to be made up of different cultures.

This share is well below the 80% average among Australians and approaches 90% among those reporting the highest life satisfaction.

Recession and stagflation

National living standards, measured by household disposable income per household adjusted for inflation, are at the same level as mid-2020.

The outlook is also not encouraging: Analysts expect the national economy to fall back into per capita recession amid stagflation of low growth and high inflation.

AMP’s chief economist, Shane Oliver, said low-income households had been hit particularly hard by the huge rise in prices of essentials such as electricity, insurance and healthcare.

“Consumer confidence appears chronically stuck at recessionary levels,” Oliver said.

Guardian Australia previously reported research showing that the wages of the highest-paid workers have more than doubled over the past decade compared to the lowest earners.

Oliver also noted the extensive literature on the economics of happiness that shows that life satisfaction does not reach a higher level with material wealth exceeding a certain middle-income threshold.

Oliver said he believes recent declines in life satisfaction are likely related to thwarted hopes and unmet expectations, and much of that can be attributed to diminished hopes of owning a home.

“I suspect housing is the biggest problem. If we can manage this problem better, it will go a long way towards solving this problem,” he said.

Anthea Hancocks is chief executive of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, an independent organisation. social harmony.

“We know that people’s economic circumstances have a really big impact on their sense of social cohesion because it affects their sense of self-worth,” Hancocks said.

“If you feel like no one cares and that you don’t really matter, that makes you feel like you can’t trust other people or institutions. That makes you not participate in their community or talk to people, so it has a big impact,” he said.

He said social media had a “huge impact” on Australians’ lives and how they perceived the world and their place in it.

Despite this dissatisfaction and increasing financial pressures, Hancocks says social cohesion nationally has proven resilient in recent years.

Scanlon’s social cohesion index has remained stable at 78 over the past three years, but remains significantly below the recent peak of 92 in 2021.

Connecting people with their neighbors and the community is key to improving life satisfaction, Hancocks said.

“Whatever your economic circumstances are, whether you’re struggling or say you’re prosperous, we know that your happiness levels double if you live in a highly harmonious neighborhood,” he said.

“That’s where our strength comes from, and most communities are actively doing something in this area.

“It’s not going to solve the problem, but building that trust is an important component. Building the national pride of being Australian; those will all help and can be key to helping people feel like someone has their back.”