Today we are releasing the National Resilience Index – USA & Australia 2026, a two-nation resilience report covering Q1 2024 to Q4 2025. Built from 14,652 PR6 resilience assessments gathered over the past two years, this report tracks how people are adapting under sustained disruption – and where vulnerability is widening. The message is clear: resilience can improve – but stability is fragile, and gains can be eroded quickly when uncertainty rises without corresponding investment in mental health.
Key Highlights
The report explores resilience levels from January 2024 through December 2025. Here are the core findings:
- A Divergence in National Stability – Australia and the United States followed distinct trajectories over the reporting period. Australia showed a gradual rebuild throughout 2025, ending the year at a two-year high of 69%. In contrast, the US experienced more volatility, peaking at 70.5% in Q3 2025 before a sharp decline to 64.5% in Q4 as social and economic disruptions intensified
- The Power of Resilience Training – Resilience First Aid continues to show remarkable results, delivering an average 14.5% improvement in resilience. A 41% improvement for those in high-risk groups (PR6 < 50%) highlights that resilience is a trainable skill that can be strengthened where risk is highest
- Sector & Demographic Risks – While industries like Emergency Services have seen forward strides (ending at 75.7%), a concerning divergence has emerged among younger people. Students and those in early career stages ended 2025 at just 52.4%, concerningly close to the high-risk threshold, signalling a widening vulnerability in the next generation
- The Protection Gap – 9 in 10 people in both nations continue to score below the 85% protected range. This indicates that the vast majority of the population is carrying current demands without sufficient resilience in reserve to buffer against the risk of depression and anxiety
Reflecting on #Resilience25by25
In 2021 we launched a project aiming for a 25% improvement in resilience by 2025. The aim of this improvement was to shift more people out of the high-risk range of resilience towards the protected range. Achieving this means a measurable reduction in mental health risk, such as depression, anxiety, and overall emotional vulnerability.
As we close out this project, we’ve learned that people at highest risk (PR6 score lower than 50%) improved much more than 25%:
- Across all programs, we found this group improved by 38.5% on average, marking a substantial shift and reduction in overall mental health risk for this group
- Resilience First Aid in particular had a similar and even stronger effect on this group, improving resilience by 41% on average, presenting a repeatable, accredited, and peer-reviewed approach to build resilience in the population at scale
This relates back to the concept of ‘shifting the wave’ we discussed in 2021, where through resilience training people move from the high-risk range closer towards the protected range of resilience.
The diagram below illustrates this shift, where pre-training we have a larger concentration of people in Low (LO: PR6 <50%) and Below Average (BA: PR6 50% to <70%) groups. Following resilience training, we see a strong shift towards the Above Average (AA: PR6 70% to <85%) and High (HI: PR6 ≥85%) groups.
This shift is significant, as we know from previous research that as people move to the higher groups, they reach stronger levels of protection. In comparison to the Low group:
- The Above Average range affords a 2.8x lower risk of depression, 2.2x lower risk of anxiety, and 2.8x lower emotional vulnerability overall
- The High range increases protection, achieving a 5.6x lower risk of depression, 4.2x lower risk of anxiety, and 5.9x lower emotional vulnerability overall
Those most at risk are the highest priority, as developing resilience capacity has a proven protective effect that can be achieved rapidly, illustrated well by Resilience First Aid’s 41% improvement in this group.
Given these improvements and learning more about where the biggest gains at a population level can be made, we can now move beyond #Resilience25by25 and focus more broadly on resilience training overall. We know resilience training works. We know which programs to implement. Now it’s about scaling up and reaching more people. The next step – building a resilient world.
How You Can Contribute to Building Resilience
Supporting mental health at all levels remains a key priority for workplaces and communities, primarily as life becomes more complex with an uncertain future. Being able to manage this uncertainty with confidence requires all six resilience domain skills, providing a level of protection for our collective wellbeing that will only become more important.
Here are three ways to support resilience:
- Incorporate Accredited Training – Scientifically proven and peer-reviewed programs like Resilience First Aid build personal capacity while providing a 30% improvement in recognising warning signs in others
- Track Resilience Scores – We encourage workplaces and communities to track resilience regularly to speed up decision-making and target investment where it is needed most
- Create Connected Resilience – Balance individual effort with community investment. When communities lead with visible investment in support systems, individuals are far more likely to engage in their own resilience journey
Download the Full 2026 National Resilience Index
The 2026 report provides an in-depth analysis for the last two years, including:
- A quarter-by-quarter narrative of the two-nation comparison (what shifted, when, and why)
- Domain-level resilience patterns for Australia and the US
- An industry overview comparing resilience across sectors such as Emergency Services and Healthcare, Education, Government, and students
- The full RFA impact report, detailing population shifts and prevention outcomes
- Forward-looking guidance on Creating Connected Resilience (with practical direction for organisations and communities).
We invite you to explore the full findings to help build a more resilient future.
