Australians are relatively sanguine about most issues - with two notable exceptions. By Nick Cater.

If worrying was an Olympic sport, the odds of an Australian victory would not be worth taking. Australians have their troubled moments and may fret among themselves, but international surveys suggest that the intensity of their concerns about almost everything is hardly world best.

In an era when the words ‘crisis’ and ‘catastrophe’ appear in every second headline, the latest update of the Ipsos survey of 28 countries, ‘What Worries the World?’ is a source of national pride.

Asked if their country was on the wrong track, only a minority (42 per cent) of Australians said yes, placing us third from bottom in the rankings. Compared to Colombians (88 per cent), Peruvians (86 per cent) and South Africans (83 per cent) Australians are generally pretty contented with the direction in which they are heading.

Would you say things in this country are heading in the right direction, or are they off on the wrong track?

Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, June 25th – July 9th 2021.Source: Ipsos Global Advisor. — Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, June 25th – July 9th 2021.
Source: Ipsos Global Advisor.

Barely one in five (22 per cent) of Australians are troubled about poverty and social inequality, placing them third from bottom, ahead of the US (19 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (18 per cent). Russia romps home with gold (58 per cent concern) followed by Hungary (45 per cent) and Colombia (44 per cent). Hard core social justice warriors determined to find fault in their country will doubtless attribute Australia’s low score to coldness of heart. Others will trust the empirical data which shows not only that Australia is a wealthy country but that that wealth is distributed far more evenly than in most.

Poverty & Social Inequality: % worried in July 2021 in each country

Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, 13 ‒ June 25th – July 9th 2021.
Source: Ipsos Global Advisor.

Australia is 17th on the level of worry about crime and violence (21 per cent). Netflix audiences addicted to drug cartel dramas won’t be surprised to learn that Mexico (57 per cent) beat Chile (47 per cent) and South Africa (45 per cent) for second place.

The clear winner was Sweden (63 per cent), a result that may surprise those Australians still infatuated with the so-called Scandinavian model, but not those who have been following the consequences of the country’s soft-border policy during the 2015 middle-eastern refugee crisis. It has not been a story on which the mainstream media has felt comfortable reporting, but it serves as a reminder of the sound judgment of Australians when they elected Tony Abbott to government in 2013.

Crime & Violence: % worried in July 2021 in each country

Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, 15 ‒ June 25th – July 9th 2021.
Source: Ipsos Global Advisor.

The relative absence of corruption is another trait of Australia’s character that confounds self-loathing sophisticates. The demands for a federal independent corruption watchdog is hardly an election winner, judging from this survey. Only 16 per cent of Australians are troubled about corporate or public malfeasance, placing their country some distance behind the winner South Africa on 60 per cent. Netflix proves to be a good form guide once again as Colombia comes in second (55 per cent) and Peru (53 per cent).

Financial/Political Corruption: % worried in July 2021 in each country

Asked if they were concerned about unemployment or jobs, Australia languishes in the bottom half of the table, finishing in 17th place with a score of 26 per cent. South Africa (62 per cent) was the clear winner, followed by Italy (55 per cent) and South Korea (51 per cent).

Unemployment and Jobs: % worried in July 2021 in each country

Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, 12 ‒ June 25th – July 9th 2021.
Source: Ipsos Global Advisor.

Fortunately, however, the Worry Olympics has its pool events, climate change and Covid-19, two areas of concern where Australia can fret with the best of them. Just over half of Australians (52 per cent) worry about coronavirus, placing us in fourth place behind Malaysia (76 per cent), Japan (59 per cent) and South Korea (52 per cent).

Coronavirus (COVID-19): % worried in July 2021 in each country

The top four are all countries where the deaths per million are significantly lower than the world average of 547. Instead in the case of South Korea (41) and Australia (36), deaths per million are not even a tenth of the world average, which suggests a pattern: in nations that have avoided the worst of Covid-19, people fear it most. Psychiatrists and torturers will attest to the fact that anticipatory fear, laden with uncertainty and what-ifs, frequently drives more powerful emotions than the anticipated experience itself.

That may also be an emotional driver of the intense fear of climate change some are experiencing. It is a worry in which Australia excels in relative terms. Some 28 per cent of Australians see it as a national threat, not quite the consensus some may imagine, but high enough to grab third position out of 28 countries behind Canada (32 per cent) and Germany (30 per cent). We rank ahead of France, the Netherlands, the US and the UK.

In nine countries, fear of climate change is in single figures, illustrating the wide gap in emotion. The laggards are Colombia and Russia on 4 per cent, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and South Africa on 3 per cent and Malaysia on just 1 per cent.

One conclusion might be that climate change catastrophism, as some suggest, is a first-world problem, an issue that rises to the top of the hierarchy of fears when there are fewer pressing things to worry about.

Climate Change: % worried in July 2021 in each country

Base: Representative sample of 20,502 adults aged 16-74 in 28 participating countries, 16 ‒ June 25th – July 9th 2021.
Source: Ipsos Global Advisor.

Paradoxically, for Australians at least, the process of addressing our fears through this survey is a therapeutic experience. The anxieties that loom so large in public debate fall away into insignificance compared with the concerns in countries where the concept of liberal democracy is non-existent or less secure.

It is comforting to discover empirical proof for an emotion most Australians feel in our heart but seldom express. Australia is an exceptional country. For all its challenges, Australia is still, as Barry McKenzie memorably described it: “the best bloody country on earth, no worries.”

Australian exceptionalism