Are you ok Australia?

Australians report high levels of life satisfaction but there are gaps – Indigenous Australians, immigrants and the unemployed fare worse. And a warning on COVID-19 fallout, social ties are important, writes Dr Ferdi Botha.

Measuring the material factors of our lives ­– like finances, work and health – can tell us a lot about the state of Australian society and the policy challenges. But what are the things that matter most to us?

To help answer this question we need to know not just what people have and don’t have, but how they feel – what researchers call subjective wellbeing.

The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey asks this question of around 17,000 Australians every year.

It shows that over almost two-decades (between 2001 and 2018) Australians’ life satisfaction has been fairly constant at relatively high levels. But there are gaps, with the unemployed, immigrants from non-English speaking countries and Indigenous Australians faring worse than other Australians.

The results highlight the central importance of basic things like health and safety in life satisfaction, as well as social contact.

Combined with the reduced satisfaction that comes from unemployment, the data is a warning that the wellbeing of many Australians is likely to have been significantly hurt this year by the economic and social cost of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The youngest and oldest have the highest life satisfaction

Life satisfaction, as one measure of subjective wellbeing, is measured in HILDA by asking Australians: “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life overall?”

Responses can range from zero to 10 – the higher this score, the more satisfied a person is with their life as a whole.

Respondents were also asked to rate their satisfaction with different areas or domains of life – namely job, finances, housing, safety, leisure and health.

Australians are generally quite satisfied with their lives. In 2018, for example, the average life satisfaction score was about 7.92, which suggests that the average Australian reports a high level of satisfaction with life.

In 2018, the average life satisfaction score was about 7.92 on the 0-10 scale. HILDA 2020

Women report consistently higher levels of life satisfaction compared to men (though this difference is very small), and this has remained consistent over the 18 years of HILDA. But women are less satisfied with leisure time than men, which may reflect the greater child caring burden on women.

There are also some age differences. As is common across the world, the youngest (15-24) and oldest (65 and over) have the highest life satisfaction, whereas Australians in the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups are consistently the least satisfied with their lives.

The HILDA results confirm a so-called “U-shape” relationship between age and life satisfaction, implying that life satisfaction is relatively high at younger ages, declines during middle age, and starts increasing again at a later stage.

Life satisfaction is relatively high at younger ages, declines during middle age, and starts increasing again at a later stage. HILDA 2020

Health and safety: good for most but not all

Health, unsurprisingly, seems to play an important role as well. People in poor general or mental health, and those with a disability, have substantially lower average life satisfaction than people without such health problems.

As might be expected, the employed have much lower satisfaction with their leisure time than those who are unemployed or not in the labour force. But regardless of gender, the unemployed are much less satisfied with life.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians overall reported similar levels of life satisfaction in 2018, but there are relatively large differences in some important domains that suggests Indigenous Australians do worse.

Compared to non-Indigenous people, Indigenous Australians report lower satisfaction with finances, housing and health.

Apart from health satisfaction, immigrants from non-English speaking countries report lower wellbeing in all domains including with life overall.

When we consider satisfaction in different life domains, Australian men and women are least satisfied about their finances, although financial satisfaction has been increasing somewhat over time.

Of the ‘life domains’ we asked about, Australians are most satisfied about their personal safety. But women are less satisfied with leisure time than men. HILDA 2020

Australians are most satisfied about their personal safety and here, as well, safety satisfaction has shown an upward trend over time. Of note is that Australians’ satisfaction with health, although relatively high, has been on a slight downward trend over the past two decades.

Life satisfaction

Married people are more satisfied than those in other marital statuses, although one interesting exception is among women in de facto relationships, who are slightly more satisfied with life than married women.

Somewhat counterintuitively, higher levels of education are related to lower reported life satisfaction. A possible explanation for this is the hypothesis that more educated persons have higher aspirations which, if not met, may have a detrimental wellbeing effect.

Having children is positively related to life satisfaction for men, but for women there is no relationship between children and life satisfaction. Again, this may in part reflect greater childcare responsibility and is also consistent with women’s lower leisure satisfaction.

People with a disability are especially more likely to have lower life satisfaction, which points to the detrimental impact that adverse health conditions can have on wellbeing.

Having regular social contact and social relationships leads to higher life satisfaction for both men and women, underscoring the importance of maintaining social ties.

The social restrictions imposed to control COVID-19 this year therefore likely had a detrimental effect on the well-being of many Australians, especially in Melbourne.

For both women and men, having higher household income is related to greater life satisfaction, but the effect is pretty small. So, life satisfaction is not just about money.

For women there is no relationship between region of residence and life satisfaction, but men living in major urban areas are much less satisfied with life compared to men living in non-urban areas.

For all Australians, regardless of age or gender, changes in health satisfaction lead to the largest changes in life satisfaction. After health satisfaction, people’s satisfaction with personal safety are also associated with large increases in overall life satisfaction.

These findings imply that what Australians consider part of their basic needs – being healthy and feeling safe – are some of the most important contributors to overall wellbeing.

What policies and services do we need?

For the most part, the average Australian is doing very well. Overall life satisfaction is generally high, and satisfaction with safety and housing rank among the highest scored domain satisfactions, suggesting most Australians are very satisfied with the provision of their basic needs.

But it is clear the unemployed have very low levels of wellbeing in most life domains. Subjective wellbeing is also quite low among immigrants from non-English speaking countries, as well as among Indigenous Australians.

These observations stress the importance of a strong emphasis on factors like job creation and skills development for unemployed people, additional support for immigrants and continued emphasis on Indigenous well-being.

Because health satisfaction is the strongest predictor of overall life satisfaction in Australia, improvements in individual health circumstances are likely to filter through into greater overall life satisfaction.

Finally, the data on Australians suffering from poor health – physical, mental, and those with a disability – signal that the efficient and effective provision of health services to those most in need is paramount.

About the author: Dr Ferdi Botha is a research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, in the Faculty of Business and Economic at University of Melbourne.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

This piece was co-published with the University of Melbourne’s Pursuit.