Today the media, includingThe Australian and The Age , report on the "Australian Unity Wellbeing Index". This is based on surveys of people in each of the 150 or so federal electorates asking them to rate their level of satisfaction with seven aspects of their life: standard of living, health, relationships, achievement in life, safety, community connection and future security.
The Age summarises the findings:
"The happiest electorates tend to have lower population density, a high proportion of people over 55, more females, more married people, and less income inequality. Importantly, they have a strong sense of 'connection to their community'."
2 comments:
It's an important study, but it's got some problems when it decides at the outset that one of the things that makes up happiness is 'connection to community' and then produces the finding that happy people tend to have a high level of 'connection to community'.
I've written about it here if you're interested: http://greenomics.blogspot.com/2006/02/happiness-and-wellbeing-in-australia.html
David, I've read your piece and note that you acknowledge the importance of the study, especially its emphasis on non-material measures of wellbeing (IMO not the same as "happiness").
You're concerned about "Connection to community", which is only one of seven indicators of wellbeing. According to the Wellbeing Index website at
http://www.australianunity.com.au/au/info/wellbeingindex/default.asp?source=leftmenu
the level of satisfaction with this indicator has declined slightly over the last few years.
Would you exclude connection to community from the survey or replace it with other criteria?
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