Regional well-being in tropical Queensland, Australia: developing a dissatisfaction index to inform government policy

Abstract

This paper investigates the perceived well-being of residents of two coastal rural areas located in the central part of the Great Barrier Reef region in Australia. Typically, well-being studies concentrate on collating data from respondents about their perceptions of levels of satisfaction on specific predetermined points. However, recording respondents' satisfactions with various contributors to their well-being does not provide researchers with an indication of how important those contributors are to the respondents. This paper presents an approach to the analysis of well-being that combines the perceived importance of the well-being factors with the reported levels of satisfaction with the factor, aggregated to a regional level. A total of 372 individuals were asked to comment on how satisfied they were with twenty-seven well-being factors from the domains of society, the natural environment, and the economy and services. The highest reported satisfaction rates were associated with family relations, family safety, family health, family education levels, and work (>75%). Information about the perceived importance of the well-being factors was also recorded and combined with information about levels of satisfaction, thus creating an index of dissatisfaction—an index that allows one to identify an 'action list', or set of regional priorities that, if addressed by policy makers, has the potential to enhance regional well-being. Several high-scoring factors in the index, such as condition of the landscape and beaches and access to nature, came from the domain of the natural environment, indicating the importance of integrated approaches to well-being that also include environmental concerns.