The research was conducted in Australia, during October 9-11, 2017 with a nationally representative sample of 595 men and women aged 14 or over.
New in-depth research exploring the concerns of Australians both in Australia and on the global front found Australians are now concerned about the environment and war & terrorism as major world problems, but at home it’s all about the economy (especially unemployment) and the biggest increase in recent months has been issues related to the ‘Energy Crisis’.
Most important problems facing Australia
Quantified thematic analysis of the verbatim responses of a nationally representative sample of 595 Australians found the economy and things economic to be the biggest single theme to emerge followed by issues relating to Australia’s growing ‘Energy Crisis’.
Economic Issues including Unemployment, Housing affordability, the Economy in general, Poverty and the gap between the rich and poor were mentioned by 29% of Australians as the most important problems facing Australia and a further 15% of respondents mentioned concerns related to Energy – Energy infrastructure, Energy reliability, Electricity prices and the sustainable management of natural resources like gas.
These further themes emerged:
- Government, Politics and Leadership issues were mentioned by a further 13%;
- Environmental issues were mentioned by 11% of Australians.
- Social issues were mentioned by 10% of Australians;
- Religion, Immigration and Human Rights issues were mentioned by 9% of Australians.
Most important issues facing the World
When considering the wider World, the largest theme to emerge was about concerns related to the Environment, mentioned by just over 26% of Australians – and in particular the issue of Global warming and Climate change just ahead of War & Terrorism mentioned by just under 26% of respondents.
The charts below show the quantified thematic analysis of Australians’ concerns. Respondents were asked: “What do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and then “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”
Source: Roy Morgan interviewed a representative cross-section of 595 Australians in October 2017.
The Energy crisis is the single biggest issue facing Australia and Climate Change is the single biggest issue facing the world
Single issue analysis of the responses shows the specific issue of greatest concern for Australia is the current Energy crisis mentioned by just over 14% of Australians. This is more than any other single issue.
The next two most often mentioned single issues were:
- Climate change/Global warming – mentioned by 9% of Australians; and
- Unemployment – mentioned by 8% of Australians.
Source: Roy Morgan interviewed a representative cross-section of 595 Australians in October 2017.
Climate change/Global warming and Wars and Conflicts clearly the top World problems
The two biggest World problems are Climate change/Global warming mentioned by just under 20% of respondents and Wars and Conflicts mentioned by just over 13% of respondents and the related issue of Terrorism mentioned by over 9% of respondents.
The largest Economic problem facing the World is Poverty and the gap between rich and poor which was mentioned by 7% of respondents while just under 6% of respondents mentioned US President Donald Trump as the single biggest problem the World faces.
Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan, says:
“The Economy has dominated discussion in Australia for a long time and this is no different late in 2017 with 29% of Australians naming an Economic issue as the biggest problem facing Australia including 8% mentioning Unemployment.
“However it is the sharp increase in respondents mentioning an Energy related issue as the biggest problem facing Australia that should be a major concern for the Federal Government and several State Governments facing elections in the next 12 months – now mentioned by over 15% of respondents up a large 11% since the last ‘issues’ survey Roy Morgan conducted in mid-2017.
“Other important issues facing Australia include Climate change/Global warming mentioned by 9% of respondents, Politics/Political system mentioned by nearly 7% of respondents and the closely related issue of Leadership from politicians/Lack of vision mentioned by just under 6%.
“On the world front it is the Environment led by Climate change/Global warming and the related issues of War & conflicts and Terrorism that dominate concerns. Over half of respondents mention either an Environmental or War/Terrorism related issue as the biggest problem facing the World – well ahead of even Economic issues mentioned by under 15% of respondents.
“In the coming weeks Roy Morgan will be releasing more detailed analysis of this important survey including the verbatim responses given by those surveyed outlining exactly what problems they see facing Australia and the World as we head towards 2018.”
The research was conducted in Australia, during October 9-11, 2017 with a nationally representative sample of 595 men and women aged 14 or over. Respondents were asked: “What do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”
These findings come from a special Roy Morgan study of Australians’ attitudes towards issues facing Australia and the World in the future. The research conducted was both qualitative (in that people were asked to use their own words) and quantitative (in that the ‘open-ended’ responses were analysed and ‘coded’ so that the results could be counted and reported as percentages).
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Gary Morgan:
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