The Happiest In Australia

They are a happy lot those Brisbane folk.

In fact they are happier with their quality of life than residents if every other Australian capital.

And that’s not all. They believe, once again, that the River City is top of the list as the best city to raise a family, according to research commissioned by Brisbane City Council.

In his inaugural State of the City address to the Committee for Brisbane  Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner presented new data on the city’s quality of life.

The data was sourced from research conducted by Kantar Public Australia, which surveyed 2402 people through online interviews, using residents from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and south-east Queensland areas.

In his speech, Cr Schrinner noted the government of Bhutan, a remote, landlocked country between Tibet and India, published a “gross national happiness index”.

While the Lord Mayor said he wouldn’t suggest Brisbane begin its own happiness index, he said the council had collated the data for a new “Better Brisbane Index” to be updated annually.

Brisbane residents reported a 93 per cent quality-of-life rating, compared with Melbourne and Perth residents, who reported an 89 per cent rating, and Sydney residents a 76 per cent rating.

Sixty-six per cent of Brisbane residents agreed Brisbane was “a better place to live and work” than it was five years ago, while only 45 per cent of Sydney residents felt the same about their city.

Brisbane also rated highly for “a good standard of living” with 91 per cent, versus Perth with 84 per cent and Melbourne 82 per cent.

Sydney trailed well behind with 71 per cent.

South-east Queensland and Brisbane equalled in respondents’ considerations for “a reasonable cost of living”, with 74-75 per cent.

In contrast, Sydney reported a scathing 32 per cent of respondents who believed the city had a reasonable cost of living.

And Brisbane once again was the top of the list as the best city to raise a family, followed by Perth and Melbourne.

The lord mayor noted in his speech that while an overall 93 per cent marking is a number to be “proud of”, there was “always work to do” to reach 100 per cent.