The sad truth about how Aussies treat their neighbours in 2025
Exclusive data from Real Insurance and MyMavins reveals Australians are socialising less with the people they live near, highlighting a generational gap in behaviour when it comes to a sense of community.
One of the biggest discoveries from the report was that 72 per cent of people nationwide feel Australians are less interested in knowing their neighbours compared to 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, a whopping 62 per cent of Aussies admitted they'd lived next to someone for more than six months without ever having met them.
Among Gen Z and Gen Y Australians, that number rises to 71 and 70 per cent respectively.
Psychologist and founder of the Happiness Institute, Dr Tim Sharp, said many of 2025's neighbourly habits came from a changed relationship with how people socialised.
'For Gen Z and Gen Y, community isn't always next door,' he said. 'It's often online, interest-based, and built in comment threads and DMs rather than driveways and cul-de-sacs.'
'That community is not so much defined by geographical boundaries, but more by other things like passions, interests … the need for connection hasn't gone anywhere. It's an inherent part of being a human.'
The data, taken from the Real Neighbours Report 2025, was collected from interviews with more than 5,000 Australians aged 18 and over.
In doing so, the report was able to calculate the country's happiest neighbourhoods, using a scoring system that ranked friendliness, likability, helpfulness, community spirit and noise.
Across Australia, the overall neighbourhood rating sits at 69.5, with the best areas at scores of 75 and the worst at scores of around 63.
Australia's top three areas include Sutherland in Sydney, Cairns and South Australia's south east. On the other end of the scale, Central West NSW, Ballarat and inner Melbourne were ranked with the lowest scores within the ranking.
The number one source of judgment between neighbours is noise level: with 48 per cent of Aussies judging neighbours for their volume, and a third of Aussies feeling judged for the same thing.
That judgement is not always invisible, either. One in four Aussies have received passive-aggressive messages from the people around them, with that number jumping to one in three among Gen Z responders.
To make matters worse, more than a third of Aussies have felt their privacy was invaded by a neighbour, from observation without their consent to even entering their property without permission.
Neighbours can get so bad that nearly a third of those surveyed had taken concrete action to escape difficult ones. 17 per cent of Australians have called the police on a neighbour before, and 12 per cent have actually relocated to save themselves strife.
The study also shows a generational gap in behaviour. While nearly 9 in 10 Aussies greet neighbours regularly, only 30 per cent of Gen Z always acknowledge their neighbours when passing by, compared to 73 per cent of Baby Boomers.
Baby Boomers are also twice as likely as Gen Z to know all of their neighbours, at 36 vs. 18 per cent.
Dr Sharp said these changing habits weren't always as bad as they seemed.
'There's not necessarily a distinction between online and real life nowadays,' he said. 'There's nothing wrong with messaging someone rather than walking around a corner … but the best way to utilise the contemporary technologies is to use them as a means of fostering [real life] relationships.'
Jo Taranto, founder of community outreach group Good for the Hood, said she often saw online groups being made for people to connect within their suburb, using social media apps such as Facebook.
'Online groups are great to supplement and support existing relationships, as well as create new connections for events that are coming up,' she said. '[They] have a really positive place to build local identity and support local activities.'
It's not all doom and gloom for Australian mateship in the data, either. 48 per cent of people surveyed said that a casual conversation had eventually led to friendship with a neighbour.
Around 2 in 3 Australians see their neighbours to be overall helpful and likeable, and 80 per cent consider good neighbour relationships to be important for safety and emergency reasons.
That's more than just talk, too. Nearly 3 in 5 people nationwide asked neighbours to watch their homes and over half of Aussies share groceries and tools with the person next door.
'Connection to neighbours, or community, is vitally important,' Dr Sharp said. 'We all have different preferences. There's no one size fits all approach.'
'You need to do it in a way that works for you … in some way or other, we all like to and need to connect.'
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Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Surprising new face of homelessness
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Orange Sky Credit: Supplied Over that time, with cost of living becoming increasingly burdensome and people struggling more and more to make ends meet, Ms Brooks said homelessness had shifted from something predominantly affecting those with pre-existing circumstances to everyday people just down on their luck. 'I think some years ago here it was a more common story that (homelessness) was a complex needs situation often,' she said. Complex needs refers to a situation where a person is dealing with several connected issues that seriously impact their wellbeing and ability to function in society. Examples can include intellectual disabilities, mental health concerns and drug addictions. 'Whereas now, I think what we're seeing a lot more is that people have less resources available to them. The cost of living definitely has had an impact on that,' she said. 'The cost of rent, a lot of people are priced out of the market. Some of the people that I've met doing Orange Sky have ended up learning about these services that they had no idea even existed for decades because they had careers and they ran a business and they were in a family. 'Then their circumstances change and they realise that they can't even get a rental and that they're struggling to get employment.' A homeless woman sleeps outside Sydney Town Hall Woolworths. NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers Credit: News Corp Australia Orange Sky provides hot showers and laundry cleaning services via mobile vans and Ms Brooks said the demographics of homelessness she was seeing over the course of her work was becoming 'increasingly diverse'. 'I think it's important to note the diversity of people we see,' she said. 'We're seeing young people, older people, all ages, genders, ethnicities. It's become increasingly diverse. 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Orange Sky helps provide clean laundry and hot showers to those sleeping rough. Orange Sky Credit: Supplied Speaking to NSW parliament on Friday morning, Premier Chris Minns announced a 10-year strategy targeting homelessness. Mr Minns drew focus to young people and Aboriginal communities 'disproportionately affected' by the issue. In the last census, the total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing homelessness was up 6.4 per cent from the previous census, making them approximately eight times more likely to be homeless than non-indigenous counterparts. Mr Minns announced a sleeping register would be brought in to develop a 'true picture of the scope and nature of people that are sleeping rough in NSW'. 'This is a real priority for us, an important one for the state, and an important one for Sydney, given we're one of the most expensive cities on the face of the world,' he said. Speaking to NewsWire, Homelessness Minister Rose Jackson said 'the previous government's promise to cut homelessness in half by 2025 simply hasn't delivered'. 'We've heard the reports and seen the statistics, and we need to be honest, past plans by the former Liberal/National Government failed because they were never adequately funded, never strategic enough and never long-term,' she said. Homelessness Minister Rose Jackson said 'the previous government's promise to cut homelessness in half by 2025 simply hasn't delivered'. Photo: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia 'This week, we announced our new homelessness strategy, a real and comprehensive approach to tackling homelessness. 'This strategy isn't just about crisis accommodation; it's about addressing the root cause of homelessness, the lack of affordable housing.' Ms Jackson acknowledged in order to solve the crisis a strategic approach was needed. 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Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Those left behind: The long shadow of Britain's nuclear testing in WA
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On a recent expedition up to the Montebello archipelago, 80 kilometres offshore from Onslow, the trio gathered documentary and archival material while filling gaps in their own family histories. For Grace and Goodwin, the most poignant moment was when they stood on the tarmac at Onslow airport in the exact spot where his grandfather and her father posed for a photograph with No 86 Transport Wing Detachment RAAF, to commemorate the successful test of Britain's first ever nuclear bomb detonation on October 3, 1952. 'My grandfather Flight Lieutenant Ron Grace is seventh from left back row, and Maxine's father Leading Aircraftman [later Sergeant] Max Ward is third from left front row,' says Grace. 'They performed what they called 'coastal monitoring sorties' after testing, but that was code for looking for fallout – the British had promised that no fallout would reach the mainland.' Grace's grandfather wrote later: 'As pilot of the aircraft, I would have been the most exposed crew member, being shielded only by the Perspex of the front and side windows. The navigator, radio operator and Mr Hale being in the body of the aircraft had, presumably, more protection. 'Further to the above, after leaving the atomic cloud, we spent approximately two more hours in a radioactive airplane (as proved by the Geiger-Counter check) during the return to Onslow, landing, parking and shut-down.' Maxine Goodwin's father died of lymphatic cancer aged 49, when she was 16. 'He would have been servicing contaminated aircraft, so my mother and I do believe his illness was the result of his participation in the nuclear tests,' she says. 'When Paul and I looked across at the original runway where the Dakota planes would have been taking off and landing, I could visualise the busy scene from that time, and it was very emotional.' 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'The British did a very good job of keeping things under wraps and applying pressure on the Australian government to do the same.' Allen Blinko died of old age, but a 2006 DVA study of Australian participants in British nuclear tests in Australia showed an increase in cancer deaths and cancer incidence (18 per cent and 23 per cent respectively) than would be expected in the general population. 'They tried to explain these figures away, but they are really quite damning,' says Paul Grace, an author whose book Operation Hurricane gives a detailed account of the events and personnel involved in UK nuclear testing in Australia. The three descendants of nuclear veterans describe the Montebello Islands as haunting but beautiful. 'Within the landscape, you've got an incredible number of Cold War artefacts lying around, what the British referred to as 'target response items',' says Grace. 'It means stuff that they planted around the place to see whether it could withstand a nuclear blast, like World War II-era bomb shelters constructed out of corrugated iron and sandbags.' Another relic is the metal framework of the command centre on Hermite Island, which Grace, Goodwin and Blinko visited. 'It's where the scientists triggered all three bombs,' says Grace. 'It's on top of a hill with an extraordinary view over the entire island group, the only site during the tests that was still manned but evacuated afterwards.' The nuclear fallout was not limited to those servicemen involved. Still affected 70 years later are large tracts of land and seabed across the Montebello archipelago. New research into plutonium levels in sediment on some islands have found elevated levels up to 4500 times greater than other parts of the WA coastline. The research by Edith Cowan University, released in June, was supported by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. Visitors are urged to spend no more than an hour on some islands. Grace says the Montebello story is a cautionary tale of Australia's over-eagerness to host Britain's nuclear test series, and of UK authorities' lack of safety and casual attitude toward radioactive drift. 'It forces you to question the wisdom of tying Australia's defence to powerful allies, especially in the context of the current debate over AUKUS, where the benefits are vague and shifting and the costs will only become clear decades in the future,' she says.
The Age
2 days ago
- The Age
Those left behind: The long shadow of Britain's nuclear testing in WA
A son, a daughter and a grandson of Australian servicemen exposed to nuclear testing have made an emotional pilgrimage up to the remote Montebello Islands to capture details of an era with – literally and metaphorically – enduring fallout. Paul Grace, Maxine Goodwin and Gary Blinco recently stood together in the ruins of a bomb command centre overlooking the scene of three British nuclear tests in the 1950s that few younger Australians have ever heard of. As the world commemorates Japan's wartime nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the trio say Australians should not forget the impact of atomic tests conducted on West Australian soil in the 1950s, starting with Operation Hurricane in 1952 and followed by two more tests in Operation Mosaic in 1956. Other atomic tests at Emu Field and Maralinga bookended the Montebello series. Grace, Goodwin and Blinco all know the tests left a family legacy of death or ill-health – and lingering contamination 70 years later on several islands. On a recent expedition up to the Montebello archipelago, 80 kilometres offshore from Onslow, the trio gathered documentary and archival material while filling gaps in their own family histories. For Grace and Goodwin, the most poignant moment was when they stood on the tarmac at Onslow airport in the exact spot where his grandfather and her father posed for a photograph with No 86 Transport Wing Detachment RAAF, to commemorate the successful test of Britain's first ever nuclear bomb detonation on October 3, 1952. 'My grandfather Flight Lieutenant Ron Grace is seventh from left back row, and Maxine's father Leading Aircraftman [later Sergeant] Max Ward is third from left front row,' says Grace. 'They performed what they called 'coastal monitoring sorties' after testing, but that was code for looking for fallout – the British had promised that no fallout would reach the mainland.' Grace's grandfather wrote later: 'As pilot of the aircraft, I would have been the most exposed crew member, being shielded only by the Perspex of the front and side windows. The navigator, radio operator and Mr Hale being in the body of the aircraft had, presumably, more protection. 'Further to the above, after leaving the atomic cloud, we spent approximately two more hours in a radioactive airplane (as proved by the Geiger-Counter check) during the return to Onslow, landing, parking and shut-down.' Maxine Goodwin's father died of lymphatic cancer aged 49, when she was 16. 'He would have been servicing contaminated aircraft, so my mother and I do believe his illness was the result of his participation in the nuclear tests,' she says. 'When Paul and I looked across at the original runway where the Dakota planes would have been taking off and landing, I could visualise the busy scene from that time, and it was very emotional.' Gary Blinco's father Allen made several trips to the Montebello Islands during the test years, working as a navy diver recovering moorings in a lagoon and monitoring radiation levels. 'I knew as a young guy that my father had been there, but I didn't really know what it meant,' he says. 'I had a burning need to connect.' By the time Blinko was able to sit down with his estranged father to discuss it, the older man had been diagnosed with dementia. But he vividly recalled diving on the site of Royal Navy frigate HMS Plym, which had been detonated by one of the explosions; he recalled a depression in the seabed and 'a shiny base'. 'I'm told there was high stress about being a navy diver there,' says his son. 'I was able to swim in the water where my Dad had dived, and I walked on the beach where he guided scientists to do their monitoring. They were fully protected; he was wearing sandals and shorts.' 'The British did a very good job of keeping things under wraps and applying pressure on the Australian government to do the same.' Allen Blinko died of old age, but a 2006 DVA study of Australian participants in British nuclear tests in Australia showed an increase in cancer deaths and cancer incidence (18 per cent and 23 per cent respectively) than would be expected in the general population. 'They tried to explain these figures away, but they are really quite damning,' says Paul Grace, an author whose book Operation Hurricane gives a detailed account of the events and personnel involved in UK nuclear testing in Australia. The three descendants of nuclear veterans describe the Montebello Islands as haunting but beautiful. 'Within the landscape, you've got an incredible number of Cold War artefacts lying around, what the British referred to as 'target response items',' says Grace. 'It means stuff that they planted around the place to see whether it could withstand a nuclear blast, like World War II-era bomb shelters constructed out of corrugated iron and sandbags.' Another relic is the metal framework of the command centre on Hermite Island, which Grace, Goodwin and Blinko visited. 'It's where the scientists triggered all three bombs,' says Grace. 'It's on top of a hill with an extraordinary view over the entire island group, the only site during the tests that was still manned but evacuated afterwards.' The nuclear fallout was not limited to those servicemen involved. Still affected 70 years later are large tracts of land and seabed across the Montebello archipelago. New research into plutonium levels in sediment on some islands have found elevated levels up to 4500 times greater than other parts of the WA coastline. The research by Edith Cowan University, released in June, was supported by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. Visitors are urged to spend no more than an hour on some islands. Grace says the Montebello story is a cautionary tale of Australia's over-eagerness to host Britain's nuclear test series, and of UK authorities' lack of safety and casual attitude toward radioactive drift. 'It forces you to question the wisdom of tying Australia's defence to powerful allies, especially in the context of the current debate over AUKUS, where the benefits are vague and shifting and the costs will only become clear decades in the future,' she says.
