Face-to-face contact with family, friends declining in Australia

Face-to-face contact between Australian families and friends fell 3 percent from 2010 to 76 percent in 2014, while non-face-to-face contact remained the preferred option with 92 percent maintaining contact by phone, text or video, according to official data released on Monday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey, released on Monday, showed many indicators of community support are in decline, coinciding with a higher proportion of Australians feeling time- poor.

The ABS data supports Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data released last year that suggested Australia is below the OECD average in work-life balance.

According to the ABS, 40.5 percent of Australians in 2014 were always or often rushed or pressed for time, compared with 24.6 percent who were rarely or never rushed or pressed for time.

Voluntary work fell for the first time since surveying began in 1995 with the proportion of adults doing unpaid work falling to 31 percent in 2014 after peaking at 36 percent in 2010.

Australia's reputation as a sport-loving nation may soon be benched with participation in sport and recreation activities declining from 74 percent in 2010 to 70 percent in 2014.

Civic participation, which refers to involvement in unions, association, welfare or rights groups or political parties, also fell from almost one-in-five (19 percent) to less than one-in- seven (14 percent).

The drop in civic and social participation led to a decline in the number of Australians who felt able to have a say within their community all or most of the time (down 4 percent to 25 percent).

Almost half of Australians never or rarely felt able to have a say within their community. Endi