Explore Indicators
Social cohesion – looking out for each other
What is the indicator?
In communities with high social cohesion, the high level of trust, shared values and sense of belonging can increase the likelihood that members of the community will help others out in their community, even if they are not personal friends. This indicator examines whether people look out for each other in local communities by checking in on, helping out and supporting others in the community.
This indicator was first measured in the 2025 Regional Wellbeing Survey, after discussions with Victorian rural communities who were developing wellbeing frameworks identified ‘looking out for each other’ as an important indicator of local wellbeing. This was considered particularly important to examine in rural communities, where physical isolation and sometimes limited access to formal support services increases the importance of community members informally looking out for and supporting each other.
What can this tell us about wellbeing?
There are obvious benefits to wellbeing when people support each other: the people receiving support are likely to have higher wellbeing, and all involved can experience wellbeing benefits associated with having social connection. People looking out for and supporting each other in a community is a sign that there is strong social cohesion. Social cohesion in turn – the extent to which people living in a community feel a sense of trust, shared values and unity – is a well established determinant of wellbeing. Strong social cohesion has a significant positive impact on both personal wellbeing of individuals, and on community wellbeing as a whole, as a community with high social cohesion is more likely to work effectively together to support the needs of the community.
Advantages and disadvantages of this indicator
Advantages: This indicator monitors the outcomes of having social cohesion, but identifying whether local social cohesion is sufficiently strong to promote people helping each other out in the community even if they don’t know each other well.
Disadvantages: It is possible for people living in the same geographic location (such as a rural town or local government area) to have different experiences of social cohesion. Those who are part of an ‘in group’ may report strong support is present, but fail to recognise that not all people living in the community are given access to this support. When interpreting the indicator, it is important to identify whether there are differences of view about the presence of social support in a community, to help understand this.
What measures should I use for this indicator?
Measures examining social cohesion in the form of people looking out for each other are included in the annual Regional Wellbeing Survey (RWS), and can be included in any community survey. In addition to the measure examples provided below, it is possible to ask many more question in surveys of residents. For example, Kim et al. (2020) detail a commonly used question that asks people if they believe other members of the community would return their wallet if they accidentally left it in a public place.
Measures
The Regional Wellbeing Survey includes questions asking about whether residents feel that people in their local community look out for and support each other. These began to be measured from 2025. These data are available via data tables, and the Regional Wellbeing Dashboard. Data are published for Australia, states and territories, regional Australia, and a range of geographic regions. The smallest scale at which data are available is the local government area (LGA), although sample sizes are too small to report data for some smaller population LGAs in rural Australia. Where this is the case, findings are published for a larger region that includes that LGA.
You can use data from the Regional Wellbeing Survey in a number of ways:
- Directly source data about your community or region from the results published each year in data tables and the Regional Wellbeing Dashboard
- Include the same question in your own survey, and draw on Regional Wellbeing Survey data to provide comparison data that enables you to assess how your community is going compared to others of similar size, or to the average for regional areas in your state/territory, or across regional Australia, urban Australia, or Australia as a whole
- Include additional questions asking residents for more specific information about social cohesion levels and whether people support each other in the local community.
This indicator has only been measured for a limited time. Overall, higher confidence that people look out for each other is a positive sign of higher social cohesion, which in turn is an indicator of higher personal and community wellbeing. However, as noted in the ‘disadvantages’ section of the indicator, it is possible for some members of the community to have access to support while still excluding others. Additionally, further assessment of this measures needed as it is a relatively new measure, to identify whether answers to the survey questions listed under ‘data sources’ provide useful insight.
The primary data source available for this measure is the Regional Wellbeing Survey. Data are updated annually, and available via data tables and the Regional Wellbeing Dashboard.
The questions included in the Regional Wellbeing Survey are described below. In addition to these questions, it is possible to ask residents more detailed questions about whether and when people look out for and support each other.
| Question/item | Response options |
| In this community, people help others even if they don’t know them well | 7 point scale from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree), with a ‘Don’t know’ option also provided |
| In this community, many people check in on others and support them | 7 point scale from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree), with a ‘Don’t know’ option also provided |
This measure can be included in your own survey. You can replicate questions used in the Regional Wellbeing Survey, draw on other questions that have been designed and made available for public use, such as those described in the Social Capital and Social Cohesion Measurement Toolkit, or design your own that are focused on the specific issues of interest or concern in your community related to how well people in the community support each other.