Aussies happiest they’ve been this century
AUSTRALIANS are more satisfied with their lives now than at any time since the year 2000.
The latest Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey finds average life satisfaction in 2016 hit a record score of 76.7, the highest since the index’s inception in 2000.
This comes despite a long-term decline in health satisfaction over the past 16 years, and increasing concern about the possibility of a terrorist attack.
“These findings reiterate a major theme of the Wellbeing Index over time, which is that satisfaction with one’s health is not a significant driver of their personal wellbeing,” Deakin University senior research fellow Delyse Hutchinson says.
“Of greater importance are financial security, a sense of purpose in life and strong relationships. We call this the ‘golden triangle of wellbeing’,” Dr Hutchinson says.
The index, a joint project of Australian Unity and the Australian Centre on Quality of Life (Deakin University), evaluates satisfaction with life across a range of areas – standard of living, health, achievement, personal relationships, safety, community connection and future security. A personal wellbeing score out of 100 is recorded.
“The domains of standard of living (80.8), safety (82.0), community connection (73.7) and future security (73.3) reached their highest recorded levels, which is interesting when set against the finding on the perceived likelihood of a terrorist attack,” Dr Hutchinson says.
She says while the index does not examine the reasons behind this increasing happiness trend, “overall life satisfaction also runs deeper than our daily concerns about housing costs or job insecurities.”