Community resilience to emergencies


Safety

Community resilience to emergencies

How prepared are we for future floods, fires, storms, drought, or other emergencies?

Emergency preparedness

This measure shows the proportion of Canberran adults who feel they are prepared for an emergency. This is important because having a plan for natural disasters can be important to the protection of property and minimise the mental health impacts on individuals and communities.

Preparedness rose after the Black Summer bushfires. In 2021, nearly half of Canberrans (46.1%) felt confident they knew what to do in an emergency. In 2023, this fell to 35.9%.

This suggests that many Canberrans have reduced emergency preparedness during this time. Around 1 in 6 Canberrans (16.8%) reported feeling unprepared for an emergency in 2023.

Overall, confidence in emergency preparedness was higher than average in 2023 amongst:

2022-2023: Living well in the ACT region survey, unpublished data.

2019-2021: Living well in the ACT region: The changing wellbeing of Canberrans during 2020 and 2021.

Line graph of percentage of respondents who agreed, disagreed, or had neutral level of agreement that they were prepared for emergencies in the ACT, between 2019 and 2023.

In 2023, 47.3% felt sort of prepared for an emergency compared to 47.1% in 2021, 47.5% in 2020.

In 2023, 35.9% felt prepared for an emergency compared to 46.1% in 2021, 42.9% in 2020.

In 2023, 16.8% felt unsure or unprepared for an emergency compared to 6.8% in 2021, 9.6% in 2020.

The Living Well in the ACT Region survey, conducted by the University of Canberra, aims to measure, track and understand the wellbeing of adult residents living in the Australian Capital Territory region of Australia. It examines factors known to affect wellbeing at the individual, household, community and regional level.

When generating data for the ACT, statistical weighting is used to address differences between the sample of people who respond to the survey, and the characteristics of the ACT adult population. Differences between groups are reported when there is a statistically significant difference based on 95% confidence intervals or other tests of significance.

Data are produced from this survey for different groups of people in the ACT. The ‘overall response’ category represents responses at the ACT population level. Where reliable estimates can be produced, data are also presented for Canberrans by: gender, age, cultural background, gender identity and sexuality, carer role and experience of disability.

Care is needed when interpreting the differences in findings between groups as the descriptive statistics published here show where there are differences in wellbeing, but not what has caused those differences in wellbeing.

The University of Canberra has been conducting the survey since 2019. The University of Canberra has been conducting the survey since 2019. As of mid-2023, the survey had been conducted 6 times. Not all questions have been measured each time the survey has been conducted.

There have been no changes in measure design, analysis or reporting of this measure since it was first included in the survey.

Data for people with disability are only available for 2023 due to a change in the way disability was defined and measured in the survey, to better reflect international best practice.

Further information about the survey can be found at Living Well in the ACT Region or by contacting Professor Jacki Schirmer at the University of Canberra.