Australians were happier during COVID. The reason is money | The Business | ABC NEWS

Australians felt a greater sense of satisfaction during the pandemic than when restrictions were fully lifted, ABS data has shown. The survey of more than 13,000 households was collected between May and June 2025, after the initial impact of US President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" changes to global tariffs and before the Reserve Bank began lifting interest rates, and the current Middle East conflict spiked oil prices. In 2025, more than one in five households reported being unable to raise $2,000 within a week. More than a quarter had experienced at least one cashflow problem, requiring them to dip into savings or take on debt. Terry Rawnsley, an urban economist at consulting firm KPMG Australia says "when you look at life satisfaction on a scale of one to 10, in 2020, when we're in the middle of the pandemic, life satisfaction was 7.2 out of 10. Last year, it was 7.1... We're feeling worse about the world today than we were during the pandemic lockdown." The ABS data shows how increasing financial stresses mean people feel less satisfied with their lives now than the nation was locked down during COVID. "Real wages are lower than they were in 2020, median household wealth is actually flat over that five-year period ... so it's no surprise people are less satisfied with their lives because they're feeling that financial pressure." Mr Rawnsley said. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-0... Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia