How does your council compare to your peers across the country?
In 2025–26, Australian local governments collected 107,000 survey responses from more than 1,800 surveys. 74 regional, metro and capital city councils across Australia used the Culture Counts Evaluation Platform to survey their cultural and community events, programs and infrastructure. Using this data, we’ve released an online benchmark report exploring the extensive range of outcomes generated across social, cultural, community, economic, environmental, qualities and library domains – and we’ve highlighted the key findings below.
This report gives councils a way to see how their results compare to a national cohort of similar local governments – and to set informed targets for 2026–27 across community engagement, behaviours, experience and outcomes.
Overall Agreement Levels
Some standout results from this year’s most popular dimension statements, by domain:
| Domain | Dimension | Statement | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultural | Challenge | It challenged me to think in a different way | 80% |
| Social | Connection | It helped me to feel connected to people in the community | 85% |
| Community | Place | It made me feel proud of my local area | 88% |
| Economic | Diversity | It engaged people from different backgrounds | 86% |
| Placemaking | Vibrancy | I enjoy the vibrancy and activity here | 94% |
| Library | Safe and Trusted | I feel safe and welcome when using the library service | 94% |
| Qualities | Enthusiasm | I would come to something like this again | 95% |
| Environmental | Awareness | It opened my eyes to issues in the environment | 82% |
Other Highlights
Nationally, the overall experience score reached 95%, with a Net Promoter Score of 57. New South Wales led the way on both counts, recording the highest overall experience rating at 97% and a Net Promoter Score of 63.
- Word of mouth was the leading marketing channel in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales
- Social media was the top channel for Western Australia at 38%
- Western Australia had the highest overseas-born respondent rate at 35%, followed by New South Wales at 31%
- New South Wales recorded the highest proportion of respondents from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds at 19%
- Respondents aged 60+ made up 49% of Victoria’s audience, the highest of any state
Using the Benchmarks
Councils can use the data to benchmark and learn from their peers, validate the metrics they’re already using, and set realistic, evidence-based KPIs for the year ahead.
Click here to access the report, or contact us to discuss incorporating benchmarks into your council’s online insights reports.
