The 2010 Mapping Social Cohesion Report

The survey context was also one of rapid population growth, with annual population growth at historically high levels of 2.2% in the year ended December 2008 and 2.0% in the year ended December 2009.

Findings

There are many positives in the findings of the 2010 survey. General questions relating to national life and levels of personal satisfaction elicited the high levels of positive response that have been evident not only in the Scanlon Foundation surveys, but also in other Australian surveys over the last 20 years. Almost unanimously (95%) Australians express a strong sense of belonging in their country, 90% take great pride in the Australian way of life, and 91% believe that maintaining the Australian way of life and culture is important. 88% of respondents indicate that ‘taking all things into consideration’, they are happy with their lives.