A snapshot of the lifestyles and consumption

patterns of a sample of Australian households

Preliminary results
Introduction
Decisions households make about where to live, whether to buy or rent a house, how many
children to raise and what major items to purchase, as well as the behaviours affected by
these decisions, strongly influence the impact a society has on the environment.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics collects information about household consumption
patterns and time use through the Household Expenditure Survey and Time Use Survey,
respectively. However, the results of these surveys are difficult to synthesis because the
respondents are not the same and the surveys are conducted at distinct points in time.
The aim of this research was to address this gap by exploring how household-level
consumption patterns in Australia are related to peoples lifestyles.
This information sheet provides a summary of the results of a national online household
consumption and lifestyle survey conducted in mid 2009. If you are interested in a more
detailed report, please contact Sonia Graham: sonia.graham@csiro.au

About the survey

The survey contained eight sections: background information; diet; transport; housing;
energy; water; time use; and personal values and consumer behaviour.
The national survey was completed by 2171 people from across Australia.
This document presents a very brief summary of the major findings of the survey. A detailed
analysis of the data is not presented nor are final conclusions drawn. Further analysis will be
conducted over the next six months.

Results
Demographic characteristics. Survey respondents came from all over Australia, including
regional and remote areas. The distribution of respondents from across the states and
territories compared well with the adult Australian population, with the exceptions of NSW
and the ACT.
Socio-economic characteristics. Compared to the Australian population, respondents tended
to be younger, have higher incomes and have spent more time in tertiary education. There
was also a bias towards females. It is important to take these biases into account when
interpreting the results presented here. It is not expected that the trends found here reflect
those of the Australian adult population. Rather, they reflect the opinions of the demographic
described above.
Diet and food preparation. Respondents tended to prepare and consume food that can be
considered to fall within a Western diet. They frequently used fresh ingredients when
cooking and occasionally cooked vegetarian meals. Very few respondents maintained a

convenience food diet, with home cooked meals being more commonly consumed than takeaway or restaurant meals.
Transport. Respondents relied heavily on cars for transport. Most households owned at least
one car and cars were identified as the most common form of transport to a range of
activities. Car use was higher for shopping and recreation than for going to work, when
respondents were more likely to use other modes of transport. The main reason identified for
using cars, in preference to other means of transport, was commuting time.
2

Housing. Most respondents lived in stand alone houses with floor areas of at least 50 m and
2
property blocks of at least 250 m . Most properties had at least two bedrooms and at least
one living area.
Energy and water. More than half the respondents used electricity and one-third used gas as
the main forms of energy in their dwellings. The vast majority of respondents obtained water
from the mains. Most respondents were taking steps to try to limit their personal use of
energy and water at home. The majority of respondents had at least one energy and one
water saving feature installed in their homes. Despite this, more than half the respondents
believed that their energy and water use had stayed the same or increased in the year prior
to the questionnaire.
Lifestyle. The majority of respondents felt that they are frequently rushed or pressed for time
and rarely felt that they have too much spare time. Outside of work, the most common, active
pastime reported was participating in a sport or physical activity. Of the more passive,
entertainment-oriented activities, the most common was reading a book, newspaper or
magazine.
Personal values. Overall, respondents indicated that they believed that nature is fragile and
that humans need to adapt their behaviour to accommodate the environment. Mostly,
respondents believed that this needs to be achieved through government intervention. Partly,
this needs to come from recognising the problems of economic growth, but without
necessarily shifting to a no-growth economy. Respondents were divergent in their support of
science and technology as a solution to environmental problems, with the exception being
research into alternative energy, which was highly supported.
Consumer behaviour. When shopping, the most common concerns among respondents were
buying high quality durable products and buying chemicals products that were
environmentally friendly. Of least concern was fashion.

Concluding remarks
The results presented in this report indicate that there is considerable similarity in respondents concerns for
the environment; however, beliefs about how to address concerns are quite diverse. The more radical the
suggested change, the less agreement. This is reflected in respondents consumption behaviours, with
greater uptake of strategies that require little change, such as installing energy-efficient lights, and less
uptake of more permanent and expensive changes, such as improving widespread energy efficiencies
through double glazing windows. Some of the reasons for these differences will be further explored during
further analysis.

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Contact: Sonia Graham

Phone: +61 2 6242 1767 Fax: +61 2 6242 1705 Email: sonia.graham@csiro.au