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.

Having a plan for natural disasters is important for keeping you and your property safe. It can also minimise mental health impacts on individuals and communities.

After the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-2020, nearly half of Canberrans (46.1%) felt they knew what to do in an emergency.

In 2024, 32.2% felt confident, down from 35.9% in 2023, suggesting that many people in our community now have reduced emergency preparedness.

The proportion of people who don’t feel prepared or are unsure has increased in the last year to 27.4% from 16.8% in 2023.

The University of Canberra 2024 Living Well in the ACT Region survey found that, in terms of specific measures in 2024:

Data for this indicator are sourced from the University of Canberra Living well in the ACT Region survey. Detailed survey data, survey user guide and published reports from the survey can be accessed at https://www.regionalwellbeing.org.au/living-well-in-the-act-region/.

Line graph of percentage of respondents who agreed, disagreed, or 'sort of’ agreed that they were prepared for emergencies in the ACT, between 2019 and 2024.

In 2024:

  • 40.4% felt ‘sort of‘ prepared for an emergency compared to 47.3% in 2023
  • 32.2% felt prepared for an emergency compared to 35.9% in 2023
  • 27.4% felt unsure or unprepared for an emergency compared to 16.8% in 2023.

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

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. Not all differences over time or between groups are statistically significant: information on confidence intervals for the data presented here is available in data tables that can be accessed at https://www.regionalwellbeing.org.au/living-well-in-the-act-region/.

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.

Further information about the survey can be found at Living Well in the ACT Region or by contacting regionalwellbeing@canberra.edu.au.