I have worked on an index that measures the wellbeing of Australians since 2001. It is peer reviewed survey that has a sound theoretical background. So far over 28,000 Australians have been surveyed over 14 surveys of 2,000 each. Every survey sample was stratified by geography and corrected for gender bias. In short, it's representative and a damn solid study. And yes...money does buy you happiness but only to a point. Beyond a certain point there is a diminishing return. Among other findings:
Australians are about 75% happy with their lives. Relationships and community connectedness account for a lot. Women are happier than men. Unemployed single males have the lowest wellbeing. Labor voters have lower wellbeing than liberal voters. melbourne has higher wellbeing than sydney (suffer) though darwin and Brisbane are top of the tree. Perth has the lowest. We made front page news in the perth times a while back with the headline "Glumsville". Australians also experince higher senses of wellbeing while under threat of terrorist attack eg, it went up with sept 11 and the bali bombing, No results from the latest survey that was 3 days in when the latest bali bombings happened but a tip it wil have shot up again. It was high pre iraq war, then jumped again post end of official hostilities when bagdad fell, We love a war and perform well when we are united against an external threat. And yes this is accounting for everybody. Kind of perverse in a way. The olympics sent us crazy with wellbeing going up progressively with the metal tally and muc much more. For a copy of the latest report see the Australian Centre On Quality of Life acqol.deakin.edu.au It's an inteesting read.

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