Resilience and wellbeing is one of the themes of the Australian Community Survey (ACS). High stress levels can be a source of negative wellbeing.
In the 2024 ACS, we asked Australians how stressed they have felt in the past month and what they felt was causing their stress.
Results reveal that 46% - nearly half of Australians- scored themselves a 7 or above out of 10, an increase from 40% in 2022.
In 2024 we asked Australians, ‘How stressed have you felt in the past month?’ on a range from 0 (no stress at all) to 10 (very high stress), in the Australian Community Survey (ACS) by NCLS Research.
Just under half of Australians reported high to very high stress , rating their stress levels from 7 to 10.
When compared with an earlier survey in 2022, we find that the percentage of Australians who report this level of stress has increased from 40% in 2022 to 46% of Australians who rate their stress at 7 to 10 on the scale.
At the extreme ends of the spectrum, the results show a general trend towards higher stress. Those reporting very high stress (scoring a 9 or 10 out of 10) rose slightly from 12% in 2022 to 14% in 2024. Those reporting no or very low stress (scoring a 0 or 1 out of 10) decreased slightly from 13% to 11% between 2022 and 2024.
The results indicate that substantial proportions of Australians are reporting both moderate and higher level of stress. The proportion of those reporting high to very high stress has risen in recent years, between the 2022 ACS and 2024 ACS.
The ACS research also delved deeper into the sources of Australians' stress. These results are available in our article Cost of living top stressor for Australians.
A positive aspect of personal wellbeing was also explored in the ACS - Australians' sense of happiness in the last year. Find out more in our article Six in ten Australians say they're happy.
