Australia's first comprehensive Resilience Index has revealed that insurance coverage is the key driver of overall resilience. However, over 20% of Australians still face significant vulnerability driven by financial insecurity.
The Australian Resilience Index – developed by Zurich in collaboration with Mandala Partners, the RedBridge Group and Accent Research – released on 29 September 2026, utilises 2m proprietary and public data points and represents the first comprehensive, quantitative assessment of resilience across financial, health, social and environmental parameters at a local community level. Overall resilience was found to be most correlated with financial wellbeing, over social, health or environmental factors.
Resilience, or the ability of people and communities to withstand and recover from shocks, is measured and aggregated across four dimensions:
- Financial Resilience, including savings, insurance coverage and superannuation balances;
- Health Resilience, including physical & mental health conditions, access to care and lifestyle factors;
- Social Resilience, such as crime rates, community participation and belonging; and
- Environmental Resilience, including planning, infrastructure and service availability.
Within individual measures, insurance coverage was identified as a key driver of overall resilience, with communities registering insurance penetration of 50% or more being five times more likely to have higher financial resilience and four times more likely to have higher health resilience.
Of the nearly 2,500 local areas analysed, Cottesloe in Western Australia (WA) was identified as the nation’s most resilient, driven by the highest average dividend income rate in the country (16 times the national average), seven times higher average superannuation balances, double the insurance penetration, a third of the long-term health conditions, half the smoking rate and double the level of community volunteering.
Of the ten least resilient areas in the nation, half are located in the Northern Territory (NT), including the Tiwi Islands which scored lowest overall. Residents in this area are over 80 times more likely to live in crowded housing, experience five times the national rate of crime, have access to zero hospitals within 15kms, and are more likely to experience weakened social belonging than any other local area.
Middle-aged males (35–49) are Australia’s most resilient demographic group, driven by high income levels (81% earning above the median, versus 60% of females the same age), higher superannuation balances & dividend incomes, and far lower rates of primary caregiving. This is despite poorer health resilience, driven by obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption, and lower social resilience, due to weakened belonging and “feeling like a stranger in their own country”.
Younger people (15–34) exhibit the highest health resilience, driven by substantially lower rates of obesity, long-term health conditions, smoking and care requirements. This is despite markedly higher rates of mental health conditions.
Women are healthier on average than men, who are almost three times more likely to report unhealthy alcohol consumption, 50% more likely to smoke, and 24% more likely to be overweight or obese.
Males and people aged over 34 are far more likely to have higher environmental resilience than other cohorts, driven by higher home ownership rates, living in areas with stronger economic & infrastructure investment and increased access to services.
Zurich Chief Executive Officer Justin Delaney said, “Insurance sits at the intersection of these four dimensions of resilience. It protects financial stability when shocks occur, supports health & wellbeing through prevention and recovery services, and relies on – and contributes to – social cohesion and environmental preparedness by pooling risks and supporting communities.
“As Australia’s only major composite insurer, Zurich has a responsibility to use our data and insights broadly and systemically – to better understand the pressures facing our customers and the community to continue to evolve our propositions around prevention, early intervention and long-term protection.”
Mandala Partner Adam Triggs said, “Australians face multidimensional risks – financial, economic, environmental, technological, social, geopolitical and health – and these risks are more correlated than ever before. The focus on resilience given the breadth, depth and unpredictability of these risks has never been more important.”