Australian
Cohesion Index

Income

Personal income has grown over the decade since 2008. It was, however, a relatively slow rate of growth—around 2% per annum—compared to 3 to 4% in earlier decades. (Lowe 2018)

Households

Household net worth has grown.

Mean household net worth was $852,000 in 2009-10 and $1,022,000 in 2017-18, an increase of 20%. However, in the context of the skewing of income distribution, discussed below, median household net worth finds lower growth: an increase from $504,000 to $559,000 or 11% (ABS, Household Income and Wealth, released 12/07/2019).

Household net worth 2003-04 to 2017-18

Inequality

A widely used indicator of income inequality is the Gini coefficient, a summary indicator with values between 0 and 1. A value of 0 indicates perfect equality, whereas 1 represents perfect inequality.

In the decade to 2017-18, the level of inequality has remained largely stable, within the range 0.336 and 0.328. In 2018, Australia’s Gini coefficient ranked 13^th highest out of 33 OECD member states.

At the same time, the Gini coefficient for household net wealth increased by 3.2%. From 2003-04 to 2017-18, middle and high wealth households experienced a real increase in net worth.The average net worth of middle wealth households increased from $415,800 to $564,500 (adjusted for inflation); high wealth households increased from $1.9 million to $3.2 million. Low wealth households, with an average net worth close to $35,000, did not experience an increase in net worth. (ABS, Household Income and Wealth, 12 July 2019)

Source: ABS: Household Income and Wealth, Australia, released 12/07/2019. Equivalised Disposable Household income estimates are adjusted to standardise for variations in household size and composition, taking into account economies of scale that arise from the sharing of dwellings. Household net worth in 2017-18 dollars, adjusted using the Consumer Price Index.

Workforce

There was a substantial increase of close to two million workers employed between 2008 and 2018 (from 10.7 million to 12.6 million).

Source: Reserve Bank of Australia, Labour force (H5)

In terms of unemployment, this has overall trended downwards. Long-term unemployment has remained relatively stable, while youth unemployment – defined as 15-25-year-olds – remains a large share of the unemployed.

Source: OECD, How’s Life? 2020, p.92

Source: ABS, Labour Force, Australia, August 2018

Housing

There has been significant change in the housing market. There has been a decline in home ownership, increase in renting, and an increase in those paying more than 30% of their income on rent, which is defined as rental stress.

Source: Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Housing Occupancy and Costs, 2017-18 financial year

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Housing Affordability, 30 June 2021

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia’s welfare, Housing affordability data tables, Figure 2

Life expectancy at birth

One of the most widely used indicators of population health is life expectancy at birth, which is viewed as a summary indicator of the health of a population. Life expectancy in Australia continues to be ranked among the highest in the world. Between 2017 and 2019, Australia had the eighth highest female and the fifth highest male life expectancy in the world.

Life expectancy at birth, 1992 to 2017-19

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Life tables 2017-2019

Self-assessed health

Self-assessed health is a commonly used measure of health status. The proportion of Australians who characterise their health as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ has remained relatively unchanged throughout the period.

Source: ABS, National Health Survey, General Social Survey. For the NHS the published data is for respondents aged 15/+, with the exception of 2011-12 where it is 18/+; for the GSS, it is 18/+.

Mental health

A comparison of NHS findings for 2014-15 and 2017-18 finds that the proportion with mental or behavioural conditions has increased. In 2017-18, 20.1% or 4.8 million Australians had a mental or behavioural condition, an increase from 17.5% or 4 million in 2014-15. Overall, mental health problems were more common amongst females than males (22.3% compared to 17.9%).

Proportion of persons with a mental or behavioural condition, by age and sex, 2017-18

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Mental health 2017–18 financial year

Psychological distress

The proportion of people aged 18 or older indicating high or very high levels of psychological distress was 12% percent in 2007-08, 13% in 2017-18, representing 2.4 million people. Social and economic conditions can have a significant impact on psychological mood.

Persons aged 18 and over – high or very high psychological distress by disadvantage, 2017-18

a. A lower index of disadvantage quintile (e.g. the first quintile) indicates relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general. A higher index of disadvantage (e.g. the fifth quintile) indicates a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general. See Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage in the Glossary.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Mental health 2017-18 financial year.

Health risk factors

A number of risk factors have fallen, like smoking levels and alcohol consumption. Others, like unhealthy weight, have increased.

Source: ABS, National Health Survey, First results, 2017-18, Data downloads, Table 1, 2001-2017-18

Proportion of current daily smokers by areas of relative socio-economic disadvantage, 2017-18

a. A lower index of disadvantage quintile (e.g. the first quintile) indicates relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general. A higher index of disadvantage (e.g. the fifth quintile) indicates a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general. See Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage in the Glossary.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Smoking 2017-18 financial year

Year 9 standards – NAPLAN and PISA

There are two measures of school level educational performance of students: the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The 2018 NAPLAN results only show minor changes since the first year of testing in 2008. The majority of Year 9 students obtained results at or above the minimum standard for reading (93.4%), compared to 92.9% in 2008. 95.5% of students reached the numeracy standard (compared to 93.6% in 2008) and 79.5% reached the writing standard (compared to 84.8% in 2011, the first year the testing was introduced).

Source: National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy, National Report for 2019, p. 258, p. 279; data for 2010 and 2012 is from the 2012 report; persuasive writing is from annual reports, p. 205

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial survey of achievement in core school subjects of science, reading and mathematics and measures understanding and problem solving. The survey has been conducted since 2000. The latest results are for 2018.

It focuses on 15-year-olds, the age at which compulsory schooling comes to an end in a number of countries. It aims to assess, “the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of their compulsory education have acquired the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies.” (quoted Carol Ey 2019)

While Australian students still perform above the OECD average, the difference between the Australian and OECD averages have narrowed.

Source: OECD data, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, School student engagement and performance, release 16 Sept. 2021

Non-school qualifications

In 2018, the SEW survey found that 65.1% of Australians aged 25 to 64 years had a non-school qualification at Certificate III level or above. This had increased by almost 15 percentage points from 2008, mainly due to a higher proportion of people obtaining a bachelor or higher degree.

Source: Education and Work, Australia, May 2020

Degree level qualifications

In 2008, 24.4% of Australians aged between 25 to 64 years had a tertiary qualification at a bachelor degree level or higher. In 2018 this was significantly higher at 31.4%, an increase of seven percentage points.

Source: ABS, Education and Work, May 2018 (Released 13 Nov. 2019)

Not in education, employment or training

The acronym NEET refers to those not engaged in education, employment or training, people who are considered disengaged from work and education.

NEET is different from the unemployment rate as it captures those who are inactive as well as those who are unemployed.

Source: ABS, Education and Work, released 11/11/2020

Voluntary work / Volunteering

The GSS found that in 2006, close to one third (34.1%) of the Australian population aged 15 years and over participated in unpaid voluntary work through an organisation in the 12 months prior to the survey. This rate of volunteering has declined over the last decade: from 36.2% in 2010 to 30.9% in 2014 to 28.8% in 2019.

Source: General Social Survey, Summary Results, 2020, Released 29 June 2021

Participation in unpaid voluntary work through an organisation, by age

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia 2019

Charitable giving

Charitable giving indicates commitment to and involvement in the community; however, it is difficult to measure. This is because ‘philanthropy and giving occurs in many ways, and there are numerous mechanisms through which money can be given’. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021b)

Australian charitable giving is one of the highest in the world. The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) ranks Australia eighth (out of 140 countries) in the 10-year period between 2009 and 2018 on the World Giving Index. In this period, three out of five Australians made a financial donation to a charity. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021b)

Participation

The social networks of individuals and the development of trust and sharing that comes from personal interaction is thought to be a key to the effective functioning of democracy, according to American social researcher Robert Putnam.

In 2019, half of all Australians indicated they were involved in social groups; one quarter in community support groups, and less than one in ten (9.4%) in civic and political groups. There is consistent indication of decline in civic participation.

Involvement in social groups decreased from 63% to 51% between 2010 and 2014 and was at 50% in 2019.

Source: General Social Survey, Summary Results, 2020, Released 29 June 2021

Group involvement

Voting

Voting is an important indication of engagement with the political process. An OECD report on its member states notes that in the 2016 federal election in Australia, 91% of registered voters participated. This was one of the highest rates of participation in the OECD where the average is 69%, although it reflects the compulsory voting system.

An additional trend that is of potential relevance to assessing the workings of Australian democracy is the decrease in the vote obtained by major political parties, potentially indicating disillusionment with the parties that form government.

Source: Gerard Newman (1999); Green (2019)