Winners and Losers

Western Australians feel they have reaped the most while South Australians believe they have benefited the least from Australia’s strong economic expansion over recent years.

42.2% of WA residents state they are a lot better off or better off, yet 48.0% of South Australian residents point to being a lot worse off or worse off - alarming for John Howard’s Government with a Federal Election looming perhaps.

The findings were driven by minipoll, a new software tool developed by CoreData, and currently sitting on The Australian newspaper’s website.

With a mining boom underway it’s no real surprise to see such a buoyant mood in Western Australia, however what is interesting is that Queensland, also strongly exposed to the mining boom, did not reflect the upbeat mood to the extent of people in WA.

In fact only 35% of Queenslanders felt a lot better off or better off, while 40.2% actually felt a lot worse off or worse off with 24.8% neither better or worse off.

NSW, Australia’s biggest economy but with limited direct exposure to the mining revival over the past decade, was a mixed bag with 38.4% of its residents pointing to being better off while 36.3% noted to being worse off.

This arguably reinforces the notion of consumers in Australia trending towards two general types of people - those who have been in a position to take advantage of the property and shares boom in recent years and those who haven’t.

How do you feel about your personal financial situation as a result of Australia’s recent economic growth?

Source: minpoll n=2,000

Responses to the minipoll survey were collected between Friday 20th July and - for the purposes of this article - analysed when responses hit 2,000 mid-afternoon yesterday – July 22nd – (note the survey is still live on the homepage).

Some other interesting findings on the nation’s sentiment show a statistically significant difference between males and females.

A staggering 44.8% of females point to being a lot worse off or worse off despite the economy growing at a healthy rate – this compares to 36.1% of males.

Meanwhile thirty seven percent of males noted to being a lot better off or better off, compared to only 31.2% of females.