Last year, Australia has been named again as one of the happiest countries on the planet by the World Happiness Report, a notable survey by the United Nations to assess the state of global happiness. Ever since the survey was first published in 2012, the country has been a constant inclusion in the top 10. Consequently, Australia also has one of the highest migration rates in the world, one of the highest migrants per net population, and one of the top destinations for skilled migration and sponsorships.
And there is a clear connection. Happiness is an essential ingredient to success, whether it is with your career, financial endeavors, relationships with people, or self-fulfillment. And if a country ranks very high in the happiness level, people will gravitate to it, whatever their goals and missions in life are may be.
However, Australians’ happiness level is not some unexplainable phenomenon with unknown sources. It is the sum total of various social, economic, and environmental factors that the country worked so hard over decades to achieve.
We dissected the many elements as to why Australia is such a happy and attractive place to live in with the help of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report.
Being employed is very important for your well-being. Not only so that you can pay the bills, but it gives you the opportunity to contribute to society and the economy, hone your skills, and create professional and social relationships. Here, virtually everybody is being given that opportunity. As high as 72% of the working-age population here (aged 15 to 64) is employed and being paid. This is six points higher than the OECD’s 66% employment average.
The unemployed population (those without a job for a year or longer), on the other hand, is down at 1.3%, twice as low as the OECD average of 2.6%. Australians earn an average of US$51, 148 annually, higher compared to the OECD standard of US$40, 974.
We can never overstate the importance of strong social connection. In the age of smart phones, apps, and social media sites, our relationships have mostly died down to random “friends” we don’t even now and anonymous followers.
In Australia, however, connections are as strong as ever. 95% of the people here are secured that they know someone they could run to and rely on when the need arises, way higher compared to the OECD average of 88%. Strong social relationships provide people with strong emotional support, leading to a healthy physical and psychological dispositions in life. It also gives access to more job, career, and business opportunities to members of the community. Possibly another reason why nobody doesn’t go long unemployed here.
An educated country is a country ready to take on challenges and take care of its citizens better. Australia never misses that point. Aussies, on average, spend 19.2 years of their life studying between ages 5 and 39. Of the adults, 77% of them from ages 25-64 have attained upper secondary education. This is important because the skills required in the labour market are mostly knowledge-based, and such impressive educational statistics means that the country is prepared to meet minimum requirements of the job market.
Air and water is supposed to keep us alive. But with pollution both in the atmosphere and hydrosphere continuing to rise, they have become part of the death warrant. Dirty air and water have significantly contributed to increase in many illnesses from infections to cancer to developmental effects in children to shortened lifespan.
As far as air pollutants are concerned, Australia has the lowest rate within the OECD average at 5.9 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter. PM2.5 refers to the particulate matter that we inhale from air. OECD’s average is at 14.05 micrograms per cubic meter. Take note also that the World Health Organization’s annual guideline limit is 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Oz is still way lower.
On the other hand, 94% of people say they are satisfied with the quality of water. Way higher than the OECD average of 81%.
And because of this…
At 82 years of age, Australia has one of the highest life expectancies among the western nations. This is the result of many factors coming in together such as good living standards, lifestyles, quality education, healthy, and clean air and water, among others. Not to mention, the country’s health care is also efficient, making the people feel that they are properly being taken care of. As a result, 85% of people in Australia said they were in good health,
Democracy is a government by the people. And it is only important that the citizens are involved when it comes to nation-building activities such as elections and referendums. The most recent elections produced an overall 93% among registered voters. Civic engagement is proof that the people are well-educated, well-informed about current events, trust their government, and care enough to be involved in the decision-making process for its improvement.
Peace of mind is an important element of happiness. The people should feel safe enough in order to achieve this. Australia’s homicide rate is at 0.8, compared to OECD’s average of 4.1. As far as the trend in the previous years are concerned, crime rate keeps going down, a result of better policing, stronger criminal laws, and crime-preventive education among the people. In fact, the most prevalent offences here aren’t even threatening, as they are mostly public disorder offences, e.g. disorderly conduct or public drunkenness.
When enquired to rate their overall satisfaction with life on a scale of 0 to 10, Aussies gave it a grade of 7.3. This is higher than the OECD average of 6.5. Though this may be subjective, this enquiry produces measurements that provide useful data on the quality of life Australians are having. That only means that all the conglomeration of factors involved resulted on a positive experience they are having. That is the most important thing after all.