How Aussies treat their neighbours revealed in new report

Nearly three quarters of Aussies don’t feel like they know their neighbours anymore, with many avoiding saying hello and even sending passive aggressive messages.

Exclusive data from Real Insurance and MyMavins reveals Australians are socialising less with the people they live near, highlighting a generational gap in behaviour when it comes to a sense of community.

One of the biggest discoveries from the report was that 72 per cent of people nationwide feel Australians are less interested in knowing their neighbours compared to 20 years ago.

Exclusive data from the Real Neighbours Report 2025 has shown tensions rising between neighbours, with the majority of Aussies have lived next to a neighbour for more than 6 months without having met them.

Meanwhile, a whopping 62 per cent of Aussies admitted they’d lived next to someone for more than six months without ever having met them.

Among Gen Z and Gen Y Australians, that number rises to 71 and 70 per cent respectively.

Psychologist and founder of the Happiness Institute, Dr Tim Sharp, said many of 2025’s neighbourly habits came from a changed relationship with how people socialised.

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“For Gen Z and Gen Y, community isn’t always next door,” he said. “It’s often online, interest-based, and built in comment threads and DMs rather than driveways and cul-de-sacs.”

“That community is not so much defined by geographical boundaries, but more by other things like passions, interests … the need for connection hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s an inherent part of being a human.”

Dr Tim Sharp of the Happiness Institute said some of these new behaviours were influenced by changing habits, with people looking online for community instead of across the road.

The data, taken from the Real Neighbours Report 2025, was collected from interviews with more than 5,000 Australians aged 18 and over.

In doing so, the report was able to calculate the country’s happiest neighbourhoods, using a scoring system that ranked friendliness, likability, helpfulness, community spirit and noise.

Across Australia, the overall neighbourhood rating sits at 69.5, with the best areas at scores of 75 and the worst at scores of around 63.

Australia’s top three areas include Sutherland in Sydney, Cairns and South Australia’s south east. On the other end of the scale, Central West NSW, Ballarat and inner Melbourne were ranked with the lowest scores within the ranking.

A home for sale in Sutherland, NSW: Australia’s happiest neighbourhood, according to the report’s scoring system.

The number one source of judgment between neighbours is noise level: with 48 per cent of Aussies judging neighbours for their volume, and a third of Aussies feeling judged for the same thing.

That judgment is not always invisible, either. One in four Aussies have received passive-aggressive messages from the people around them, with that number jumping to one in three among Gen Z responders.

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To make matters worse, more than a third of Aussies have felt their privacy was invaded by a neighbour, from observation without their consent to even entering their property without permission.

Neighbours can get so bad that nearly a third of those surveyed had taken concrete action to escape difficult ones. 17 per cent of Australians have called the police on a neighbour before, and 12 per cent have actually relocated to save themselves strife.

A breakdown of how people have judged or felt judged by neighbours around the country.

The study also shows a generational gap in behaviour. While nearly 9 in 10 Aussies greet neighbours regularly, only 30 per cent of Gen Z always acknowledge their neighbours when passing by, compared to 73 per cent of Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers are also twice as likely as Gen Z to know all of their neighbours, at 36 vs. 18 per cent.

Dr Sharp said these changing habits weren’t always as bad as they seemed.

“There’s not necessarily a distinction between online and real life nowadays,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with messaging someone rather than walking around a corner … but the best way to utilise the contemporary technologies is to use them as a means of fostering [real life] relationships.”

Professionals in the field said social media could be a good way for people to connect with their neighbours, so long as people knew how to use it to their benefit.

Jo Taranto, founder of community outreach group Good for the Hood, said she often saw online groups being made for people to connect within their suburb, using social media apps such as Facebook.

“Online groups are great to supplement and support existing relationships, as well as create new connections for events that are coming up,” she said. “[They] have a really positive place to build local identity and support local activities.”

It’s not all doom and gloom for Australian mateship in the data, either. 48 per cent of people surveyed said that a casual conversation had eventually led to friendship with a neighbour.

Despite these statistics, the majority of Aussies still like their neighbours, and many are still striking up friendships with them.

Around 2 in 3 Australians see their neighbours to be overall helpful and likeable, and 80 per cent consider good neighbour relationships to be important for safety and emergency reasons.

That’s more than just talk, too. Nearly 3 in 5 people nationwide asked neighbours to watch their homes and over half of Aussies share groceries and tools with the person next door.

“Connection to neighbours, or community, is vitally important,” Dr Sharp said. “We all have different preferences. There’s no one size fits all approach.”

“You need to do it in a way that works for you … in some way or other, we all like to and need to connect.”

When good neighbours become good friends

Greenwith resident and teacher’s aide Louise Clarkson says life is immeasurably enriched by knowing her neighbour.

“When we moved in to Greenwith, I made the effort to introduce myself to my neighbours and it just has made a world of difference,” she said.

“Just simple everyday things like telling them: ‘We’re going away for the weekend, can you please keep an eye on our place and maybe put our bins out and put them back again?’.

“I’ve got a couple of neighbours across the road who are elderly and one’s very ill, so I make sure I touch base regularly and let them know if they need groceries I can grab something for them.”

Louise and Sam Clarkson, and their daughters Penelope, and Caterina chat to their neighbour Frank Camporeale. Picture: Mark Brake

Mrs Clarkson said by having a relationship with her neighbours she felt more connected with her community and safer.

“It definitely adds a richness to our community,” she said.

“And I understand why people don’t talk to their neighbours, because it can be daunting, but once you get past the awkwardness of introducing yourself, you can develop a relationship, and that helps you feel more connected.

“You don’t have to be in each other’s pockets and know everything about each other – it’s just nice to know there’s a friendly face there and someone you can trust.”

– written by Tom Bowden

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