Australia slips in happiness stakes

Are you female or over 50, or do you live in South Australia or the Northern Territory? Or perhaps you earn $100,000-plus a year? Or live in a regional city rather the big smoke? If your answer to any of these is yes, you have good cause to feel smug, as your happiness quota is much bigger than anyone else’s.

That’s the good news in NAB’s Australian Wellbeing Index. The bad news is that as a nation, we are less happy than three months ago – this quarter’s index stands at 63.5 points compared to 64.4 to end-September. That’s an indication of “not happy Jan” answers to survey questions around whether respondents felt they had a satisfied life, a worthwhile life, whether they were happy the previous day and not anxious the previous day.

South Australia and the Northern Territory (lumped into one geographical entity by the index) now have the highest wellbeing, taking over Tasmania’s lead thanks to much higher anxiety levels in the island state. Overall wellbeing, however, dropped in all states except WA and NSW/ACT.

So what’s making us less happy? More worries about financial security, standard of living, physical health and mental wellbeing.

By contrast, personal relationships and people’s homes were the biggest drivers of happiness. Wellbeing was highest for those living in SA/NT or in regional cities; earning more than $100,000 a year; all females; men aged over 50; widowed; retired; living in a household with two people; or without children

http://www.afr.com/p/personal_finance/smart_money/australia_slips_in_happiness_stakes_6LMCDOxxg741jxo6R54haP

AND are we less charitable these days?

A new nationwide survey says Australians are giving less to charity, with the average annual donation amount dropping from $317 to $283 – a trend not seen in other research in 2013.

And donating online (26 per cent) still comes in second to ‘buying a small item as part of a theme week’ (42 per cent) as the preferred method of giving.

The survey of 800 Australians, conducted by Empirica Research in conjunction with disability Not for Profit the Summer Foundation, also revealed the number of people saying they never give money to charity had increased from 4 per cent to 7 per cent.
– See more at: http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2013/12/aussies-less-charitable-survey#sthash.MTioFD3G.dpuf