Boomers and older - those aged 58 and up - are the least likely to be aware of the danger of bushfires, despite having lived through more such fires than any other generation, according to the findings of a survey by Queensland-headquartered insurer Youi.
In its report, titled “ From Risk to Resilience: Preparing Australia for the 2024-25 bushfire season”, Youi said that despite New South Wales and Queensland making up almost 33% of Australia’s land mass, and with both states regularly affected by bushfires, residents in these states are the least likely to be aware of the risk of bushfires despite living in high-risk areas.
Level of concern
Despite a host of major bushfire events in the past decade, including the Black Summer fires of 2019-20, the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 and the Black Saturday fires of Victoria in 2009, amongst those living in at-risk areas, the number of respondents who are generally not concerned about the threat is actually slightly higher than those who are concerned. The proportion of respondents who are “very concerned”, “concerned” or “somewhat concerned” is 48%.
Even amongst those who have been previously impacted by bushfires, there is a concerning lack of awareness of future risk.
Younger and older Australians display very different levels of concern – Gen Z is most concerned about the threat of bushfires to their homes, with boomers and pre-boomers much less so.
This report’s data is sourced from a survey involving 1,006 individuals from high bushfire risk locations in Australia, excluding the ACT and NT. These individuals were selected based on Youi’s classification using postcodes of policyholders located in high bushfire risk locations across Australia. The research was conducted via a 10-minute online survey between 10 April 2024 and 30 April 2024.