When asked which country they’d most like to emigrate to, 28 per cent of respondents opted for the Land of the Long White cloud, with Canada following on 15 per cent. England was the choice for 8 per cent, while only 6 per cent professed themselves happy to break free of the Commonwealth entirely … for a move to the United States.
The stats suggest that Australians who grew up in an English-speaking, majority Anglo-Saxon household would feel most comfortable opting for more of the same in New Zealand, Canada, England and America.
Among non-Caucasian Australians, however, Canada edged out New Zealand 20 per cent to 19 per cent.
Digging into the results
Australia Talks delved even deeper into their data and discovered that the more progressive your politics, the lower your income, and the older you are, the more likely you are to favour New Zealand. And age played a big part, of respondents aged 75 and over, 41 per cent opted for a quick trip across the Tasman over the more gruelling relocations on offer.
Startlingly, respondents were also more likely to back New Zealand if they habitually got more than 7 hours of sleep a night. Well-rested Australians opted for New Zealand 31 per cent of the time.
And it wasn’t just sleeping they looked into. Social media users, particularly Instagram fans, were noticeably less inclined to move to New Zealand.
New Zealand on top… again
Respondents were asked to what degree they trusted various named countries “to act responsibly in the world”.
Once again, New Zealand topped the charts.
Only 5 per cent of respondents had any sort of reservations about the Kiwis taking charge, and only 1 per cent didn’t trust New Zealand “at all”, which is probably just professional rugby players with a grudge, including Eddie Jones.
Sixty-four per cent trusted New Zealand “a lot”. Another 31 per cent “somewhat” trusted our neighbour to do the right thing by the world. New Zealand is so trusted, in fact, that significant numbers of Australians trust the Kiwis more than they do Australia. Only 36 per cent trusted Australia “a lot” to do the right thing in the world. Another 47 per cent only “somewhat” trusted their own country.
