Australians live longer, are happier in their jobs and trust each other more than they did two decades ago.
But more people are also battling chronic disease, struggling to make ends meet and having bad experiences online.
There's also less trust in government and more concern for the nation's safety than there was 20 years ago.
These are some of the findings of the first national wellbeing framework which will continue to track how healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia is.
It's part of a push to measure economic success at a societal level as well as via the more traditional means of gross domestic product (GDP), employment, inflation and wages.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the framework was part of a deliberate effort to put people, progress, fairness and opportunity at the core of Australia's economy.
He said the government needed to be better at measuring progress over time, following criticism some of the data used in the framework was out of date.
"There are a number of areas where there are limitations in the data and we need to improve that," he told reporters in Brisbane.
"One of the motivations for releasing this first national wellbeing framework is to recognise where we need to do a much better job measuring what matters in our economy and in our society."
The framework will continue to be refined as Treasury gathers new data and community feedback.
In the past two decades, Australia has improved in life expectancy, feelings of safety, representation in parliament and childhood development.
A woman born today can expect to enjoy 85.4 years of life, compared with 81.3 years for a man.
Australians are also more accepting of diversity and have more trust in others and in public services.
Household incomes have improved, as has job satisfaction.
But there are also higher numbers of Australians living with chronic conditions and many find it more difficult to access health care than in previous decades.
In 2020/21, 46.6 per cent of Australians of all ages had one or more chronic conditions and almost one in five had two or more.
There has been less progress on mental health and real wages, and measures relating to homelessness and trust in national government have deteriorated.
Australians are also finding it more difficult to make ends meet.
Since 2006, the proportion of households experiencing financial stress has increased and the proportion of people who would not be able to raise $2000 within a week, when needed, has also risen from 14.5 per cent to 18.7 per cent in 2020.
Housing is taking up more of people's pay and nearly half (46.7 per cent) of low-income earners who rent spend more than 30 per cent of their weekly income on housing costs.
On average, women had 31 minutes less free time per day than men and the biggest gap was in the 15- to 24-year age group, where women had one hour and 17 minutes less free time than men.
Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said the framework's launch was a first step towards creating policy focused on people, not just numbers.
"There is more to life than GDP," he said.
"Working people value their security in work, wages which provide a decent standard of living and satisfaction in their work.
"This framework will enable the government to assess progress against issues and priorities that affect people in their everyday lives."
