Australians Are Living Longer But Economic Security Is Declining

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(Bloomberg) — Australia’s first ever wellbeing framework painted a picture of a country where citizens are living longer and greener but their economic security is declining.

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Average life expectancy has jumped by about two years over the past roughly 20 years to 85 years for women and 81 for men, and measures of safety improved too, the study released Friday showed.

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However, the nation’s biodiversity is plunging and a greater number of households are struggling to make ends meet. Australians’ overall sense of security, particularly online, has fallen.

The “Measuring What Matters” report will form the basis of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ next budget as he focuses on social wellbeing issues, including work-life balance, income and wealth inequality, and climate resilience. Of the 50 indicators studied, the report shows progress in 20, deterioration in 12 while the remainder were little changed, mixed or didn’t have a comparison.

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“What it shows is that there are things that we can be pleased about in Australia, obviously we have our advantages, but we have work to do as well,” Chalmers told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The report used data drawn from a variety of government departments to monitor and track five broad themes, including health, safety, prosperity and sustainability.

Australia is the latest country to implement a wellbeing budget to track and highlight broader social indicators that have previously been neglected in major government reports. New Zealand, Canada and the UK all have released similar reports in recent years.

The report was criticized by some observers and conservative politicians for using outdated data, some of which was collected at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The measures on financial security are dated from as early as 2019, before the 2022-23 inflation crisis and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate hikes.

see: Australia Unexpectedly Raises Key Rate, May Tighten Further

Chalmers defended the report by saying future versions would be refined.

“We haven’t had a national wellbeing framework before, this is the first attempt at it and one of the things that it makes clear is that we need to do, collectively, a better job of measuring our progress over time,” he said.