Liveability Index

Our Liveability Index measures how people experience places in Port Stephens.

Liveability Survey 2024

Thanks for participating in this year's Liveability Survey! The results will be published on this page shortly.

The Port Stephens Liveability Survey will tell us what you love about your place, what you would like to see change in your place and your priorities for the future, how you feel your neighbourhood is performing and what change is required.

This data, once collected, will form the foundations for our community engagement program.

As a thank you for your participation, you could have the chance to win one of ten $100 shopping vouchers (Woolworths Essential, JB Hi-Fi or Prezzee Fuel).

After the survey closes on 1 December, all the responses will be processed and the competition winners will be selected. The winners will receive an email notification by Sunday 29 December. For more details, please refer to the competition terms and conditions.

It’s easy – all you need to do is tell us what is most important to you in your ideal neighbourhood and what we can do to improve it.

What is the Liveability Index?

Liveability is what a place is like to live in — a liveable place is a healthy place. We teamed up with PlaceScore to ask:
  • what people value about a place — this is called the Care Factor
  • how our places are performing — this is called PX

Liveability 2020 Index results

We conducted our first survey in September 2020, with over 3,700 participants.

Port Stephens scored a PX score of 66, just below the national average of 67.

We found that in Port Stephens, our ideal neighbourhood has:
  • locally owned and operated businesses that provide the community with their daily needs
  • a well maintained and managed public domain — footpaths, parks, roads and other public assets
  • easy to access shared community amenities.
We will run the survey again in 2023–24 to measure outcomes and track changes in values and performance.

Benefits of a Liveability Index

The Liveability Index shows us our community's priorities and how places are performing. It helps us prioritise projects that will have the biggest impact on wellbeing. The Liveability Index gives us:
  • Baseline and trend data — we can measure change in wellbeing before and after projects. We can also compare this with other streets and towns in Australia.
  • Quantitative measures — we can now measure the strengths and weaknesses of places. We can also track their performance over time.
  • Evidence-based investment — we can identify the priorities of each local community. This helps us to invest in places based on what is most important to residents and their wellbeing.