Australians contribute in many ways to the prosperity of our nation, and those contributions change over the course of our lives. Some contributions are measured and valued, while others are not.

The value generated from our economic productivity is captured in GDP, a measure of the strength of the economy. What is not adequately measured and reported is the value generated from our social contributions (social production). These contributions are not only essential to the integrity of the social fabric of our nation, but they also bolster economic productivity and national resilience.

Mental Wealth is a more holistic measure of national prosperity that captures the value of economic and social production. As such, Mental Wealth is a measure of the strength of a Wellbeing Economy and central to Australia’s commitment to Measuring What Matters. Therefore, this report makes efforts towards valuing social production as we work to measure, monitor, and forecast the Mental Wealth of our nation.

Key findings:

• Australia’s Social Production was estimated to be at least $287.86 billion, equating to 14% of Australia’s GDP in 2021.
• Women are the largest generators of value in terms of Social Production, consistent across all currently measured activity categories.
• Australians aged 65 and over contributed $7.56bn in social production through voluntary work, the largest of any age group.