Australians have a more negative attitude towards major faith groups and immigration levels, but a new report says social cohesion has remained stable over the past 12 months, despite multiple areas of strain.
The Scanlon Foundation, which has measured social cohesion since 2007, released its 2024 report on Tuesday, showing key areas of concern for Australians in 2024 include the economy, housing, immigration and safety.
The report is based on a survey of over 8,000 participants, and more than 100 questions.
Report author Dr James O'Donnell from the Australian National University said social cohesion had been declining up to 2023, particularly with the emergence of cost of living pressures.
"Social cohesion, those sort of connections and bonds that hold us together, connections between people and governments, have sort of been declining since 2020, since the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.
"But over the last 12 months at least, and despite all of the challenges we've faced over the last 12 months, lots of our indicators have been pretty stable."
The index measures social cohesion in five different areas: worth, social justice and inclusion, acceptance, belonging, and political participation.
In 2024, the number given to the feeling of belonging, and a cohesive society, is 78, the same as 2023.
Almost half of Australians (49 per cent) believe immigration levels are too high — up from 33 per cent last year.
The report found these attitudes are driven by economic and housing concerns, rather than opposition to diversity, with 85 per cent of people agreeing that multiculturalism has been good for Australia.
"That support for multiculturalism and our diversity is still a great strength for Australia," O'Donnell said.
"It's perhaps an important asset in helping us weather through lots of the global challenges, the geopolitical challenges around the world at the moment, as well as some of the economic challenges. But it's also not to be taken for granted. And there are some pressures on those sort of multicultural relations at the same time."
And as economic pressures hit Australian households, with 41 per cent of Australians surveyed describing themselves as either 'poor or struggling to pay bills', O'Donnell says Australians feel less of a sense of belonging.
"When we're struggling to pay bills we're less likely to say we have a sense of belonging, we're less likely to say we trust others and we trust in government. We're a little bit less accepting of others and our differences and diversity as well."
The report also signalled less positive attitudes towards religion, across all major faith groups.
The proportion who felt at least 'somewhat positive' towards Christians, for example, fell from 42 per cent in 2023 to 37 per cent in 2024.
One-third of Australians now report they have a somewhat or very negative attitude towards Muslims, up 7 points from 2023, and negative attitudes towards Jewish people have increased from 9 per cent to 13 per cent in the past year.
There were similar declines across all other faith groups including attitudes towards Buddhists (from 50 per cent at least 'somewhat positive’ in 2023 to 44 per cent in 2024); Hindus and Sikhs (both 33 per cent in 2023 to 26 per cent in 2024).
Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said he was not surprised.
"It doesn't surprise me that people have a worse view of the Jewish community. And we're certainly feeling it. We're feeling it in terms of exclusion, in terms of discrimination, in terms of street abuse and vilification."
