Now in its 25th year, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is the nation’s longest-running study of subjective wellbeing. This 2025 survey captured responses from more than 10,000 adults across Australia – its largest annual sample to date – offering a detailed view yet of how Australians feel about their personal lives and life in the nation. The report maps wellbeing across all federal electorates, revealing new insights into how location, income, age and social factors shape Australians’ quality of life.

The 2025 report tracks changes in wellbeing over time, examines differences in wellbeing by population groups, and describes variation in wellbeing across 148 electorates. The findings offer a benchmark for tracking change over time and a lens into how constituents feel. This knowledge can help representatives advocate for change within their communities.

Measures

• Personal wellbeing is measured through two components: satisfaction with ‘life as a whole’ and satisfaction across seven key personal life domains (e.g. health and personal relationships), averaged to form the Personal Wellbeing Index.
• National wellbeing is measured through two components: satisfaction with ‘life in Australia’ and satisfaction across six key national domains (e.g. the economic situation and government), averaged to form the National Wellbeing Index. 

Together, these measures provide insights into both how Australians feel about their own lives and how they view life within the broader national context.

Key findings

• Australians’ personal wellbeing remained relatively stable in 2025, while national wellbeing rose notably.
• Age and housing tenure remained points of inequality in personal wellbeing, with younger adults (18–54 years) and renters reporting lower scores on the Personal Wellbeing Index than older adults and homeowners.
• Income and employment inequalities persisted in both personal and national wellbeing, with those living on the lowest household incomes and those experiencing unemployment reporting some of the lowest scores on the two indices.
• Seven electorates appeared in the top 10% of estimates on both personal and national wellbeing: Canberra in the ACT; Berowra, Bradfield, and Mitchell in NSW; Goldstein in Vic; and Curtin and Tangney in WA. All seven are located in metropolitan areas.
• Higher-scoring electorates on both personal and national wellbeing were typically more affluent.
• There is a marked divide on national wellbeing for electorates in capital cities versus regional electorates.
• There were stark differences within metropolitan areas, with almost all the highest-scoring and lowest-scoring electorates located in capital cities. 

The report is accompanied by a dashboard that enables the wellbeing of Australians to be explored by electorates.