Social cohesion holds steady in Australia as pessimism about the future grows

Australia's social cohesion index, a measure of how well people feel connected to one another and to their society, stood at 78 out of 100 in the 2026 Scanlon report, according to the report's findings reported by The Guardian. That figure has not changed since 2023. Alongside it, the survey recorded a rise in gloom about where the country is heading.

The report surveyed more than 10,000 Australians, asking 100 questions on topics including life satisfaction, financial circumstances and voting intent. Despite the steady index, 62% of adults said they believed social cohesion had declined in recent years. Nearly one-third of respondents expected their lives to get worse over the next four years, up from 29% last year.

Pessimism about the country itself also increased. In 2026, 48% of respondents said they were pessimistic about Australia's future, compared with 43% in 2025. Even so, 79% said they had been happy in the past year, a share that has been stable since 2021.

Happiness did not fall evenly across age groups. The report found the decline was largest among millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, and among Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980. Since 2014, the share of millennials who are happy or very happy fell from 84% to 75%, while the share who are unhappy or very unhappy rose from 16% to 25%. Among Gen X, the unhappy share rose from 19% to 23%.

Asked about the biggest issues facing the country, respondents most often named cost of living, at 36%. Housing affordability and shortages followed at 11%, other economic issues at 10% and immigration at 9%. The report also found Australians were more worried about artificial intelligence than about climate change or going to war, with a global economic downturn and cost-of-living pressures among their main concerns.

The report further found that people suffering hardship were shifting their votes to One Nation, a political party. The survey's findings on voting intent were among the topics it covered.

The survey is produced by the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, which describes its aim as bridging academic research and public discussion of social cohesion in Australia. The lead author of the 2026 report is Dr James O'Donnell of the Australian National University. The Mapping Social Cohesion series, of which the 2026 report is part, has tracked these measures for years. In November 2023, the index fell to its lowest level since the study began 16 years earlier, in a survey of more than 7,000 Australians. The 2026 index has held at 78 since then.