The Northern Territory ranked eighth – last – in Australia for a seventh consecutive year with an overall score of 44.43 in the Social Progress Index report card, which was a decline from the previous year (46.75).
The report was released today by the Centre for Social Impact which, it says, is Australia’s only practical tool to track community wellbeing over time.
An outlier from other states and territories, NT rates highest for Shelter (70.75 – a decline from 76.87 the previous year) and lowest for Personal Freedom & Choice (30.23).
Established in 2008, the centre is a national research and education collaboration built on the foundation of four of Australia’s leading universities: UNSW, The University of Western Australia, Swinburne University of Technology and Flinders University.
The state-by-state results show housing was already the biggest concern across Australia, before the recent rise in inflation and interest rates, according to the media release.
Personal Freedom & Choice is calculated using the rate ratio of Indigenous to non-Indigenous children in out of home care and subjects of abuse investigations, perceptions of safety on public transport at night, and the rate of women seeking homelessness services due to family and domestic violence.
The NT ranked sixth in Access to Advanced Knowledge but last in Personal Safety, Health and Wellness and Access to Basic Knowledge.
View the interactive states map and the state rankings.