Canberra residents healthier, wealthier, and wiser than the average Australian

The Canberra Business Council partnered with Roy Morgan to determine the Australian Capital Territory’s economic performance and standard of living. Often other surveys amalgamate ACT results with New South Wales statistics. The Canberra Business Council wanted to determine ACT-specific outcomes.

The Roy Morgan State of the Nation – Focus on the ACT Report, issued on 30 August 2012, reinforced information previously known to the capital’s residents. According to the report, business confidence in the ACT was over 10 points higher than the national average (123.4 compared to 110.2 nationally) and the highest in the nation. It was three points higher than the mining boom State of Western Australia and 20 points higher than Queensland. This is a good indicator of the strength of the ACT’s economic performance.

Other findings included that the ACT has a higher household income compared to the national average, and that there is double the number of degree-educated people in the ACT (52% compared to 26.4% nationally).

The report outlined how the ACT compared to the rest of the States across Australia in a range of factors such as household wealth and debt, internet purchases, technology adoption, media consumption, education levels, smoking prevalence, holiday intentions, gambling, attitudes towards food, weight loss, eating out trends, and overall business performance in the last 12 months.

(Canberra Weekly Magazine, 6 September 2012)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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