Climate resilience
Resilient and sustainable nation
Released 15/09/2025
Metric
Australian Disaster Resilience Index
Why this matters
Even as the world is taking action to reduce emissions, the physical impacts of climate change will increase due to past emissions. Action is needed to build resilience and protect the environment, communities and the economy from the worst of the impacts of climate change. This means we must anticipate, manage and invest in adapting to climate risks.
Progress
According to the updated 2024 Australian Disaster Resilience Index (ADRI 2):
- 25.1% of the Australian population live in an area with high capacity for disaster resilience
- 51.8% live in areas with moderate capacity, and
- 23.1% live in an area with low capacity for disaster resilience.
Almost all areas with high capacity for disaster resilience are located within major cities and the inner regional areas of Australia, although within these regions there is still large variation in the capacity for disaster resilience of different communities.
The Australian Disaster Resilience Index provides a snapshot view of the capacity for disaster resilience within a given community, relative to other communities. It does not provide a measure of the actual response to a hazard event and cannot be used to track changes in a community's capacity for resilience over time.
- Capacity for disaster resilience as measured by ADRI 2 (2024).
- ADRI 2 measures disaster resilience as a set of coping and adaptive capacities. Coping capacity is the means by which available resources and abilities can be used to face adverse consequences that could lead to a disaster. Adaptive capacity is the arrangements and processes that enable adjustment through learning, adaptation and transformation. Communities with ADRI 2 scores above the 75% percentile have been classified as having 'High' capacity for disaster resilience, those with scores from the 25th to 75th percentile have been classified as 'Moderate' disaster resilience capacity, and communities with ADRI 2 scores below the 25th percentile have been classified as having 'Low' disaster resilience capacity.
- Area refers to the Statistical Area 2 Level geography. These areas have been designed to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically.
- Estimated resident population at June 2024, sourced from ABS Regional Population, 2023-24.
- Capacity for disaster resilience as measured by ADRI 2 (2024).
- ADRI 2 measures disaster resilience as a set of coping and adaptive capacities. Coping capacity is the means by which available resources and abilities can be used to face adverse consequences that could lead to a disaster. Adaptive capacity is the arrangements and processes that enable adjustment through learning, adaptation and transformation. Communities with ADRI 2 scores above the 75% percentile have been classified as having 'High' capacity for disaster resilience, those with scores from the 25th to 75th percentile have been classified as 'Moderate' disaster resilience capacity, and communities with ADRI 2 scores below the 25th percentile have been classified as having 'Low' disaster resilience capacity.
- SA2 refers to the Statistical Area 2 Level geography, areas which have been designed to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically. Remoteness is assessed using the Remoteness Areas.