The more a woman earns, the less housework she does.

The graph opposite shows the number of hours men and women contribute to housework tasks such as cooking, cleaning, running errands and outdoor tasks each week.

We have found that as a woman contributes more to the couples shared income, her household duties tend to be less.

However, even when her share of the couple’s income is 30 per cent or higher, the number of hours she spends on housework stays around 25 hours. And, interestingly enough, as the woman earns more, the man contributes slightly more hours to the housework.

Research has suggested that stressful life events play an important role in the onset of some forms of mental and physical ill health. Some people are better than others in coping with this stress – this might have to do with what type of person they are and how much support they have from the people around them.

Because the Living in Australia study cuts across many aspects of our lives, researchers will have the unique opportunity to study the effect of stressful life events in a wider context than what they have been able to in the past. With each new piece of evidence, the role of our government in assisting people through these stressful times will become clearer.

Most Australians like where they live. When asked to rate the neighbourhood in which they live on a 0 to 10 scale, 70 per cent of respondents to the Living in Australia study provided a rating of 8 or higher. Satisfaction levels were especially high in rural areas, particularly in Victoria and South Australia. Residents of Darwin and Canberra were also particularly satisfied with the neighbourhoods in which they lived.

In 2001, 74 percent of people said they preferred to stay living in the same local area and only 10 percent of people wanted to move. Furthermore, over 77 percent of the people who said they wanted to move in 2001 had done so by 2003.

Statistical analysis suggests, people that were most satisfied with their neighbourhood were typically:

• older, 
• female, 
• married, 
• employed full-time, 
• born in Australia, 
• in good health, and 
• resident at the same address for a long period. 

As we can see from the far right column in the graph below, 26 percent of people gave their neighbourhood top marks with a 10-out-of-10 rating, followed by 20 percent who gave a 9-out-of-10 rating.

You may recall being asked how you rated the importance of various issues in your life on a scale of 0 to 10. Most people ranked their family as being of greatest importance to them, followed by their health. As shown in the table below, the importance of religion was higher for older people, with people aged 65 years or over typically rating it sixth compared to younger people who typically rated it last, at eight. From the table we also see that leisure activities held more importance for the youngest age group (rated third behind family and health), and that financial matters were more important for people aged 25 to 44 years than for other age groups. The importance people placed on their home increased with age. Despite concerns that Australians may have become more focused on money and the things that money can buy, it is interesting to note that family and personal health consistently ranked higher than financial situation.

Nearly one-fifth (18.3%) of the Australian population moved house in in the first year of the study. Most of those moves, however, involved quite short distances. Comparison of addresses in 2001 with those recorded in 2002 reveals the following distribution of moves by distance:

• 43 per cent involved moves of less than 5 kilometers;
• 22 per cent were between 5 and 14 kilometers;
• 14 per cent were between 15 and 49 kilometers;
• 12 per cent were between 50 and 499 kilometers; and
• 8.5 per cent were 500 kilometers or more.

The majority of movers are young people (aged 25-34 years) who, on average, stay in the same place for approximately 4 years. Conversely, those aged 65 years or older reported living in the same place for an average of 20 years. Generally, the average time people spend at the one address is 10 years.

Respondents were also asked about the reasons for moving house. In just over half the cases, housing reasons were given for the move (e.g., to get a better or larger place). Family or personal reasons were cited as reasons in a further one-third of moves, job or education reasons in another one-sixth, and neighbourhood reasons in about 7 per cent of cases.

The table below relates the distances moved to the reasons for the move. It can be seen that moves for work or education purposes are typically medium to long distance moves, whereas moves for housing reasons typically involve quite short distances. Further inspection of the data revealed that where the original property was no longer available or where there were changes in the housing requirements (upsizing or downsizing), people tend to settle in the same vicinity. When seeking to obtain their own place, however, people were willing to move slightly further from their original location. Interestingly, moves to a better neighbourhood generally prompted moves of greater distances, but one-third of the moves were still less than 5 kilometers away from their original location.

Distance Moved by Reason for Move

Is the great Australian dream of owning our own home becoming unattainable?

The results from the 2004 Living in Australia study show that nearly half of the people aged 25 to 29 had bought their first home. One in seven aged 20 to 24 had also bought their first home.

The vast majority aged 20 to 29 who had not yet bought their own home said they intended to do so in the future. The graph below shows that over two thirds of this group were either somewhat or very worried about being able to afford their own home when the time came.

Proportion of future new home buyers
worried about being able to afford their own home

In 2004, the Living in Australia study asked people aged 15 to 29 to say how important various things were in their lives now and how important those things would be to them when they were 35.

The following table shows the top five important areas and how this changes with age.

It is hard for Australians to find free time.

In 2004, 38 percent of people said they struggled to find free time, while 42 percent reported being unhappy with the amount of free time they had.