YourOpinion Survey Results & News

2009 ANNUAL HAPPINESS INDEX

The Global Financial Crisis caused the world to spin a little slower in 2009, resulting in Australians
finding an increased level of everyday happiness by staying home, relaxing and saving money
instead of going out and spending, national research into Australian happiness has found.

Yet it is women who find the greatest happiness in life, not only getting more joy from a wider
range of activities than men but also experiencing a greater increase in their happiness this year
when compared with last.

Annual Happiness Index is an annual study conducted ny The Leading Edge of what makes Australians happy, and this year found that rather than put a dampener on our happiness, theGFC caused us to slow down, go out less, spend less – and find that we actually enjoyed life a little more.

While women found the greatest happiness benefits in the slower pace, with a happiness index of
32.9, men experienced a small increase in their level of happiness to 29.5 – although alarmingly, 4% of men said nothing had made them happy at all.

The more positive attitude of women generally was evident in that women found the same or a
greater level of happiness than men in everything except sex, the internet, drinking with mates and
watching or playing competitive sport.

Surprisingly, almost everyone found less joy in the bedroom in 2009, with only 39% of Australians
saying they had found happiness from being intimate with a partner – down from 43% last year.
While people aged 25-34 get the most everyday joy from intimacy and romance (50%), it is 35-44
year olds who were only age group not experiencing a decline in happiness from intimacy.

The Leading Edge Director of Client Consulting Seonaid Anderson said in 2009 Australians did not
look to their family and friends for their happiness, but more to themselves, with people finding
happiness in relaxing, saving money, a little body pampering and receiving gifts.

“This year has turned out to be the year when Australians rediscovered the joy of being alone, of
taking time out from the rat race of life and just appreciating the peace and quiet of sitting still,
either having a massage, watching the tele or surfing the internet,” Ms Anderson said. “We were
possibly too tired for more sex, or more time with the kids, or more time with our friends. Instead,
we learnt to find happiness in the smaller things in life and to get back in touch with ourselves.”

Ms Anderson said Gen Y had the greatest adjustment to their lifestyle as a result of the GFC,
having to cut back drastically on nights out drinking and socialising with friends and household
purchases. But she said rather than replace these activities with team sports and physical
exercise, they resorted to the couch to watch their favourite TV show and to eat chocolates,
biscuits, pizzas and other “comfort food”.

“Gen Y has taken the opportunity of the GFC to become a generation of couch potatoes,” Ms
Anderson said. “Almost three quarters reported finding happiness on the couch while more than
half found happiness surfing the internet. They did get more enjoyment from pets and from reading
but only 38% found happiness in being physically active.”

*The Leading Edge conducted a national online survey of 1500 YourOpinion panelists aged between 18 and 74. The survey was conducted through The Digital Edge from September 1-3, 2009.

About The Leading Edge
The Leading Edge is Australia’s largest strategic market research consultancy, working with many of Australia’s and the world’s biggest and best businesses and brands. The Leading Edge solves business problems through insights, uses creative solutions and delivers results.

2009 The Leading Edge Happiness Index Findings

Family

• Rest and relaxation continues to be high on the priority list for two thirds of Australians when it comes to
happiness, and is one thing people generally want more of.
R&R has become far more important to 18-24s and to fathers in the 35-44 bracket (increases of 22%
and 16% respectively in the past year), with almost 50% of both groups wanting more R&R.

• The one thing that makes the most people happy is quality time with their partner. While important to
50% of people, it was the most important thing for one in five Australians and becomes more important
as we get older. Interestingly, young women aged 18-34 are either getting less happiness from their partner, or fewer have a partner to spend quality time with.

• Sex, romance and intimacy has fallen as a happiness trigger in the past 12 months by 10% for men and
7% for women – and neither sex is fussed about getting a lot more. 60% of men don’t want any more sex
than they are currently getting (up 10%) and 68% of women are happy with their level of sex and
intimacy (up 6%).

• Only 35-44s are getting the same amount of enjoyment from sex this year as last – one in eight in this
age group say sex, romance and intimacy was the one thing which gave them the greatest amount of
happiness, but not if there were kids in the house! 25-34s still the age group getting the most satisfaction in the bedroom, with one in two saying sex, romance and intimacy made them happy in the past week, although the proportion wanting more fell to just 40%.

• Children make us happy, but less so than last year. Women aged 25-44 got less happiness from playing
with their children this year than last, possibly as the recession meant many have had to go back to
work, sacrificing family time. This was reflected in 50% more women from households with a higher
income saying playing with their kids made them happy when compared with women from lower income
households. One in two parents said they wanted to increase the amount of time they spend playing with their children.

• Just gathering for a family mealtime still makes one in two people happy, with women in particular
enjoying getting the family together for a meal.

Entertainment

• When it comes to entertainment, Australians get the most enjoyment from television, movies and the
theatre with 60% saying one of these activities made them happy in the past week. There was a big
increase in 18-24s getting enjoyment from these activities (up 18% to 72%), widening the gap between
them and older age groups.

• Mothers are increasingly enjoying the internet as a way of socialising and connecting with other people
while the kids are napping or at school. While men still get the most enjoyment from the net (50%), the
gap between the sexes narrowed from 13% to 10% in the past 12 months.

• Men also still love watching competitive sport, with one in three men finding happiness in front of the box
or at a sports game compared with one in seven women.

Time alone

• For Australians aged 65 and older, nothing beats a good book for happiness with two in three saying a
book brought them happiness in the past week. For one in 10 people in this age group, a book was the
one thing that brought them the greatest happiness. Books are more important to women than men, with 50% of Australian women finding happiness in the pages of a book, compared with 30% of men.

• Pets are an important source of happiness for almost half of all Australians, with 18-34s and 45-54s
getting increased enjoyment from pets this year when compared with last. The group of Australians who get the most happiness from their pets are baby boomers with low incomes and no kids at home.

• Australians generally are getting less happiness from their religion or spirituality in 2009 than they were
in 2008, with a drop of 40% (14% to 10%) for 45-54 year olds. Over 65s got the greatest happiness from
their religion, with one in five saying it had made them happy compared with only one in eight young
Australians. Australians are also looking to be less spiritual than last year, with only 12% wanting to increase time spent on their spirituality (14% last year).

• Food is an important source of happiness for Australians, with 38% deriving happiness from “good food”
or “comfort food”. While women derive greater satisfaction from food than men (42% compared with
33%), one in two 18-24 year olds say comfort food made them happy and one in eight are planning to
eat more comfort food.

Helping others

• Helping out a friend makes four in 10 people happy but more so if you are older or on a lower income.
One in four of us want to spend more time helping our friends.

• Older Australians aged 55+ are more interested in doing something for the environment or volunteering
than younger Australians, with people on lower incomes more likely to get enjoyment from volunteering
than those on higher incomes. However, young Australians are becoming increasingly aware of the need
to volunteer, with 13% aiming to spend more time volunteering – up from just 8% last year.

Exercise

• While young Australians are getting an increasing amount of enjoyment from comfort food, they are
getting less enjoyment from physical exercise – but planning to do more. 35% of young Australians
derived happiness from exercise in the week of the survey compared with 40% who got happiness from
comfort food, yet 50% want to increase the amount of exercise they are doing.

• Playing a team sport brings happiness to a small proportion of the population, predominantly young men.

Personal development

• The recession saw Australians getting an increased amount of happiness from saving money, with most
Australians cutting back their discretionary spend and instead finding they could enjoy seeing their bank
balance grow. For 35-44 year olds, 32% more reported getting happiness from saving money in 2009
compared with 2008. Saving more money is of greater importance to women than to men, with the recessions seeing this gap between the sexes widen. 45% of women want to save more money, compared with 33% of men. Young people are also keen to save more.

• A third of Australians get happy from learning something new, with young women most likely to find
happiness in new wisdom. This group is also the most likely to find happiness in success or praise at
work, although women of all ages reported increased happiness from praise at work in 2009.

Going out

• Australians spent far more time at home in 2009 when compared with 2008 – one of the big impacts of
the recession. Women were the hardest hit by the GFC –they reported a 21% reduction in happiness
attained from a night out drinking with friends compared with an 8% reduction for men. Young
Australians also reported a 22% drop in happiness derived from a night out drinking while the 45+ age
group reported fewer nights out with friends.

Gifting

• Australians get on average twice as much happiness from buying and giving presents as they do
receiving, unless they are aged under 25! One in three people derived happiness from buying a gift for someone else and one in six found happiness in receiving a gift – although the amount of happiness Australians got from receiving gifts increased by 33% last year, most likely because people were spending far less on themselves and therefore valuing gifts more. Young people aged 18-34 attained the most pleasure from receiving gifts, with 18-24s getting as much happiness from receiving as giving. The older people get, the less happiness they get from receiving and the mort happiness they get from giving, with 7% of the 65+ age group saying receiving a gift made them happy and 32% saying giving made them happy.

Retail Therapy

• All Australians cut back on retail therapy in 2009 when compared with 2008, the level of happiness for
buying household items falling by 20% and the level of happiness obtained from buying new clothes,
shoes, accessories etc falling by 10% overall. While younger Australians get three times as much happiness spending money on clothes, shoes and accessories as older Australians, and women reported double the happiness from retail therapy as men, everyone cut back on their personal clothing spend this year. Young people aged 18-24 also had a 30% drop in the happiness derived from buying items for the household – far more than any other age group.

But things are looking up – 20% of women plan to spend more time shopping!

• In contrast, all age groups spent a little more on pampering themselves in 2009 and were a little happier
as a result. While only one in eight men admit to getting happiness from a haircut, massage or spa visit
in the week prior to the survey, this increased to more than one in five women, with 18-35s most likely to
be found luxuriating in a spa in any given week.

Women enjoy pampering themselves so much that one in four is planning to spend more time in the spa
in the future – signs of an industry that is recession proof as people spent less on their clothes and
furniture and more on their hair and skin during the recession.