That’s according to recent polling performed by Roy Morgan. Respondents were asked what they considered the most important problems facing Australia and the world.

To 32.2 per cent of Australians, economic issues were of greatest concern domestically, followed by religion and human rights (14.2 per cent), government or political issues (13.0 per cent) and social issues (13.4 per cent).

Looking globally, Australians believe economic issues are also the most significant concern, with 24.8 per cent expressing concern.

This was followed by environmental issues (21.6 per cent), terrorism and wars (18.5 per cent) and social issues (9.5 per cent).

Commenting on this, CEO at Roy Morgan Michele Levine said, “In early 2018 the economy, mentioned by 32 per cent of Australians, again characterises the dominant theme representing the largest group of problems facing Australia. This is more than double several other themes mentioned by between 11-14 per cent of Australians.

“The most prominent economic issues include financial problems and the cost of living, mentioned by nearly 10 per cent of Australians, unemployment mentioned by over 7 per cent and poverty and the gap between rich and poor mentioned by over 5 per cent of respondents – all three were amongst the five most mentioned specific issues overall.”

Continuing, she said Australia has witnessed dramatic change in attitudes towards the “energy crisis”, given that it was the largest concern in October 2017. As of 8 February, just 4.6 per cent expressed concern over energy, fuel and power.

Breaking the numbers down further, Roy Morgan revealed that, as far as specific issues went, Australians were most concerned (10.6 per cent) about politics and the political system.

Roy Morgan noted that this result follows several months of discussion around the citizenship of the country’s politicians.

This concern was followed by financial problems and cost of living (9.6 per cent), climate change and global warming (7.3 per cent) and unemployment (7.3 per cent).

Worldwide, Australians were specifically concerned about climate change and global warming (13.2 per cent), the wealth gap between the rich and poor (11.7 per cent), terrorism (8.2 per cent) and wars and conflicts (6.1 per cent).