Nearly 2.2 million Australians 15 years and older are living below the wellbeing poverty line, with the share of people reporting very low life satisfaction doubling over the past decade. Source: The Guardian.
In 2025, 9.7 per cent, or about one in 10 Australians, rated their general satisfaction with life at four or below out of 10, according to The Guardian’s analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) general social survey.
That compares with one in 20, or 4.8 per cent, reporting very low overall life satisfaction in 2014.
The initial surge of Australians reporting dissatisfaction with their lives came during 2020’s Covid lockdowns and has persisted over the intervening years amid soaring cost of living.
The ABS data echoes other surveys, such as Westpac’s consumer confidence index, which has languished at around 50-year lows since failing to recover from the pandemic blow.
Amid an explosion of support for far-right and populist politics, those reporting life satisfaction scores of four or below are more likely to feel alienated and disempowered in their community, and express lower support for multiculturalism, the ABS figures show.
Only 15 per cent of people experiencing wellbeing poverty feel they have a say on important matters affecting their communities, against the average of 32 per cent across all Australians.
The proportion of people who feel they have a voice in their community increases to a high of 46 per cent among those reporting overall life satisfaction of nine or above.
National living standards, as measured by household disposable income per household adjusted for inflation, are at the same level as in mid-2020.
Nor is the outlook encouraging: analysts expect the national economy to drop back into a per capita recession amid a stagflationary backdrop of low growth and high inflation.
Shane Oliver, AMP’s chief economist, said lower-income households had been hit particularly hard by the huge rise in prices for essentials, such as electricity, insurance and healthcare.
FULL STORY
Australia’s life dissatisfaction levels double as ‘wellbeing poverty’ reaches new highs (By Patrick Commins, The Guardian)
