Roy Morgan

A record 36% of Australians consider Environmental issues are the most important problem facing the World today — the highest recorded in this poll in the five years it has been conducted, ahead of Economic issues (32%).

However in Australia, Economic Issues (29%, down 2% since November 2009) still outweigh Environmental issues (25%, up 1%) according to a special Roy Morgan survey conducted last week on what concerns Australians.

Australian views on Problems facing the World

The survey finds that as the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ (GFC) recedes further into history — at least for Australians, Environmental issues are regaining prominence amongst Australians.

Environmental issues (mentioned by 36% of Australians as the biggest problem facing the World) are up 7% since November 2009, and up 15% since May 2009. Significantly 24% (up 5% since November 2009 and up 12% since May 2009) of Australians regard Climate Change/ Global Warming as the most important problem.

As a World problem Economic issues are up 3% since November 2009 to 32%, but remain well below the peak of 51% reached in May 2009. In particular more Australians regard the Economy/ Interest rates/ Inflation (15%, up 6%) as the most important economic problem facing the World.

Other major problems are Poverty, the Gap between rich and poor (9%, down 4%), Wars and conflicts (6%, down 6%) and over—population (6%, up 2%).
Australian views on Problems facing Australia.

Similar trends, although with some key differences, can be seen in what Australians regard as the most important problem facing Australia. The most important problems facing Australia today are still Economic issues 29% (down 2% since November 2009, and down 22% since May 2009), ahead of Environmental issues 25% (up 1%, and up 8% since May 2009).

Other significant problems include Government/ Human issues, including immigration (16%, down 5%) and Social issues 10% (up 1%). In particular, Climate Change/ Global Warming (11%, down 2%), Water Conservation (7%, up 2%), Unemployment (6%, down 2%) and Immigration/ Immigration policy (6%, unchanged) remain important problems facing Australia.

Michele Levine says:

“Australia’s economy has emerged relatively unscathed from the recent “Global Financial Crisis” (GFC) and this special Roy Morgan survey on what Australians see as the most important problems facing the World and Australia shows that the improving economy is allowing Australians to start reconsidering Environmental issues as the most important problems.

“In Australia, now 25% (up 1% since November 2009) of Australians consider Environmental issues the most important problem facing Australia — the highest since November 2008. Even more significantly, now 36% (up 7% since November 2009) Australians consider Environmental issues as the most important problem facing the World, and a record high 24% (up 5%) consider the particular issue of Climate Change/ Global warming as the single most important problem facing the World.

“Despite this change, the uncertainty about the global economy is still strongly reflected in the research as 32% (up 3%) of Australians consider Economic issues as the most important problem facing the World and 29% (down 2%) consider Economic issues as the most important problem facing Australia — including 14% (unchanged) that consider the Economy/ Interest rates/ Inflation as the single biggest issue facing Australia.”

Respondents were asked:  “Firstly, what do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”

These findings come from a special Roy Morgan survey conducted in Australia on attitudes towards issues facing the World and Australia in the future. In Australia, a cross-section of 668 men and women aged 14 or over were interviewed by telephone on February 10-11, 2010.

The research conducted was both qualitative (in that people were asked to use their own words) and quantitative (in that the ‘open-ended’ responses were analysed and ‘coded’ so that the results could be counted and reported as percentages).