Australian social cohesion is one of the most carefully measured in the world. The headline finding from 2025 is one of resilience — but resilience under genuine and growing strain. The pages below draw on the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute's Mapping Social Cohesion 2025, the eighteenth annual national survey of its kind, alongside other public Australian data.
All figures sourced from Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, Mapping Social Cohesion 2025 (O'Donnell, Falkiner & Szachna), unless otherwise stated.
The Scanlon Index of Social Cohesion has held steady at 78 for three consecutive years (2023–2025) — meaningfully below pre-pandemic levels in the low-to-mid 90s, but resilient in a year of significant national and global pressure. The stability conceals real movement underneath: belonging is reshaping along generational lines, financial hardship is corroding trust, and prejudice toward particular communities remains stubbornly common.
In 2020, 63% of Australian adults said they had a strong sense of belonging in Australia. By 2025 that figure had fallen to 46% — a drop of 17 percentage points in five years. The decline is steepest among younger Australians.
Among Australian-born Gen Z (born after 1996), just 31% report a strong sense of belonging. Among Australian-born Millennials, the figure is 34% — down from an estimated 64% in the early 2010s. By contrast, 77% of Baby Boomers and 90% of the Silent Generation report strong belonging.
The widening gap is associated with social isolation, financial pressure, and political values, particularly around economic fairness. It is, in part, normal generational change. It is also, in part, a signal worth taking seriously.
83% of Australians agree that multiculturalism has been good for Australia, and 90% agree that a person born overseas is just as likely to be a good citizen as someone born here. These figures have remained high for over a decade.
At the same time, 51% now say immigration levels are "too high" — the highest figure ever recorded in the Mapping Social Cohesion study, up from 24% in 2022. The driver is largely economic: concerns about housing affordability and the cost of living have become conflated with concerns about immigration.
The distinction matters. Most people who think immigration is too high still hold warmly positive views of immigrants themselves — and of the contribution of diversity to Australian life.
Attitudes toward immigrants and people of different faiths reveal a stubborn imbalance. 61% of Australians hold positive views of immigrants from the United Kingdom; only 18–20% hold positive views of immigrants from Iraq or Sudan, and around 40% hold openly negative views.
The starkest finding is on religion: 35% of Australian adults hold negative views of Muslims. Negative views of Jewish Australians have risen from 9% in 2023 to 15% in 2025 — a rise associated with the conflict in Gaza and translating, in the worst cases, into antisemitic violence on Australian soil.
People of Asian and African background also report substantially higher rates of everyday discrimination: 40% report being discriminated against on the basis of skin colour, ethnic origin, or religion in the past twelve months, compared with 13% of the Australian-born population.
40% of Australian adults describe themselves as financially "just getting along," "struggling to pay bills," or "poor." The figure has barely moved since 2023.
People who have been financially "just getting along" for three or more consecutive years are dramatically less likely to report happiness (58% versus 91% of those who are comfortable), to trust government (28% versus 47%), to trust other people in general (32% versus 55%), or to believe their neighbourhood is cohesive (61% versus 79%).
Persistent financial pressure does not just hurt individuals. It erodes the social and civic ties that hold communities together.
82% of Australians say people in their local area are willing to help their neighbours. 80% say neighbours from different national and ethnic backgrounds get on well together. 80% say they feel they belong in their neighbourhood. These figures have remained remarkably stable for over a decade.
And they matter. People in cohesive neighbourhoods are significantly more likely to maintain happiness, trust, and belonging through periods of difficulty. They are 2.2 times more likely to develop generalised trust in others, and twice as likely to remain or become supportive of multiculturalism, compared with those in less cohesive neighbourhoods.
The everyday work of being a good neighbour is one of the most powerful pieces of national infrastructure Australia has.
— Mapping Social Cohesion 2025
The figures and findings on this page are drawn primarily from the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute's Mapping Social Cohesion 2025 report, authored by James O'Donnell, Alice Falkiner, and Katarzyna Szachna, published in 2025. The Mapping Social Cohesion study is the longest-running national survey of social cohesion in Australia, conducted annually since 2007 and surveying more than 8,000 Australian adults in 2025.
ASCS is independent of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. We cite their work because it is the gold standard in this field, and we encourage readers to engage directly with the full report.
ASCS welcomes contact from researchers, journalists, educators, and policy professionals whose work intersects with Australian social cohesion. We collaborate, we cite carefully, and we credit thoroughly.
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