Higher rates of loneliness, especially among young people, are driven, in part, by financial stressors. Photo: University of Canberra.
A new University of Canberra (UC) study has revealed a decline in the mood of the capital, with thousands of locals reporting a drop in confidence in Australia’s future.
The ‘Living Well in the ACT Region’ survey, now in its sixth year, polled 3110 adult ACT residents about their “wellbeing, resilience, and the liveability of their community”.
According to lead researcher Professor Jacki Schirmer, the results echo a troubling trend unfolding across Australia, driven by rising living costs.
“The results in the ACT certainly reflect nationwide and international trends, where we’ve seen an overall decline in wellbeing and happiness in recent years,” she said.
“There’s a whole lot of things driving that, but one of the big ones is people are losing confidence in the future. Fewer people are feeling like they’ll be better off in a few years’ time. Fewer people feel like they’ll even be as well off in five years’ time as they are now.
“It’s also about whether they will be able to afford a house? Will they be able to achieve the things they want to in life? And for some people, it’s also concerns about the impacts of climate change on their future.”
This year’s UC study found that over half of respondents have changed their food purchasing habits and reduced heating and cooling usage, while more than a third have delayed medical appointments due to the cost.
The issues identified are not just financial, but also emotional.
Nearly 19 per cent of respondents aged 30 to 49 years old said they often or always feel lonely, which is well above the survey average of 12.4 per cent.
“In particular, 30 to 49-year-olds are feeling the worst off. They’re the ones who tend to have the larger mortgages, they’ve got kids they’re taking care of, which is keeping them very busy, and we’re seeing amongst that age group that people are becoming increasingly lonely, as well as experiencing financial stress,” Prof Schirmer said.
UC Professor Jacki Schirmer. Photo: University of Canberra.
The time Canberrans have spent connecting socially has also returned concerning results, with two in five Canberrans cancelling social events in 2024.
“People are feeling like they can’t afford mainstream things or even the day-to-day things. So, they’re saying things [in the survey] like ‘I can’t afford to go out to the restaurant with friends because I need to keep that money for other things’, so that higher rate of loneliness we’re seeing is in part driven by those financial stressors.
“It’s also driven by people being busy, and in general, Canberra has a little bit of a lower sense of social connection than other cities, possibly because we have a lot of people who come from elsewhere to live here, and it can take a while to build those really meaningful social connections.”
On the plus side, time spent attending community events and volunteering increased between 2023 and 2024, making its way back to the levels that were seen in the first ‘Living Well in the ACT Region’ survey back in 2019.
Canberra also remains among the best places to live in Australia, according to the study.
“We learned that Canberra continues to be an incredibly liveable city, with 89 per cent of Canberrans reporting that their local area is really liveable – that is a much higher percentage than the national average,” Prof Schirmer said.
Fewer Canberrans are going out. Photo: ACT Government.
The UC survey is now in its fifth year and has collected data eight times since 2019. The results are incorporated into the ACT Government’s ‘Wellbeing Framework’, which is used to inform investment decisions in each year’s budget.
“The government will use reporting from the Framework to help inform Budget priority areas that will assist in the development and prioritisation of initiatives,” the Framework document reads.
Going forward, Prof Schirmer is confident wellbeing levels will rise again – in a similar situation to what followed the pandemic.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we saw a real decrease in our wellbeing in the first lockdown, but by the second one, we’d figured out how we could actually live well even in a pandemic, and wellbeing rates rose again,” Professor Schirmer said.
“I think that shows us that we can learn to adapt and change – and that we can again work to support those at risk of low wellbeing and help improve these levels of wellbeing again.”
