Survey reveals Australia’s scrolling habits

From morning news check-ins to doomscrolling, the way Australians use their phones has evolved rapidly, with new platforms and habits shaping how we spend our time online. While scrolling can be entertaining and a good way to stay connected, not all screen time is created equal. Some habits can quickly add up to multiple hours lost each day. But just how much time do Australians spend scrolling each year — and what distance does that endless thumb movement really amount to? 

To find out, health insurance comparison service iSelect surveyed 1,000 Australians and asked them to check their phone’s screen time for the last 7 days and report the total hours they spent scrolling on their device. Using this data, iSelect calculated the distances Aussies scrolled on their phones, based on typical thumb movement, providing insight into the surprising extent of our everyday scrolling habits. 

Australians are spending more time scrolling than you might think; they are glued to their phones an average of 13 hours a week. That works out to roughly 380 metres of scrolling every single day, or almost four soccer fields’ worth of scrolling content. Over a week, that adds up to around 2.6 km, and across a month, an estimated 11.5 km. It’s easy to dismiss those small daily habits, but when you add them up, the distances are surprisingly impressive. 

When you zoom out to the full year, the numbers become downright staggering. The average Aussie scrolls around 138 km annually. That’s equivalent to climbing from Mount Everest Base Camp to the summit almost seven times. Depending on scroll speed, it could be anywhere from 98 km to nearly 197 km a year. 

When it comes to scrolling on social media, Aussies aren’t all equal. Women consistently spend more time scrolling through their feeds than men, and it was evident in our research. Women averaged 13.78 hours of scroll-based phone time over seven days, while men averaged over an hour less, with 12.38 hours. Over the course of a year, this adds up to a clear difference: women scroll around 145 km annually, compared with 130 km for men, which is about 15 km more per year, equivalent to climbing the Eiffel Tower roughly 45 times more.  

But the gender gap becomes even more striking when comparing age groups. Women aged 18–24 are the highest scrolling group overall, clocking up around 162 km of per year on average, and as much as 232 km per year at a high-speed scroll rate, which is almost the same distance between Sydney and Canberra, albeit around 50 km short. At the other end of the spectrum, men aged 65 and over were found to scroll the least at about 91 km per year, yet even that is still roughly the distance from Sydney to Wollongong. 

Australians aged 25–34 scroll the most, averaging around 159 km per year. Depending on how fast they’re scrolling, at a faster rate, that distance jumps to 227 km, roughly the equivalent of scrolling all the way from Sydney to Nelson Bay (NSW) or crossing the Golden Gate Bridge more than 80 times. Younger adults (aged 18–24) also cover a lot of digital ground, averaging around 147 km per year, which is comparable to walking the full length of the Inca Trail located in Peru more than three times annually.  

Scrolling habits gradually decrease with age, but even the lowest-scrolling group, Australians aged 65 and over, still covers around 108 km per year, roughly the same as climbing the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, more than 130 times. Across all age groups, these numbers highlight how scrolling has become a consistent part of daily life, peaking in early adulthood but leaving its mark on Aussies of all ages. 

When comparing different areas in Australia, some states rack up more “thumb miles” than others, with clear differences emerging in both time spent scrolling and total distance covered. Victorians lead the country, spending an average of 14.03 hours scrolling every week and covering about 147 km a year at a typical scroll rate, equivalent to the height of Melbourne’s Eureka Tower almost 500 times. South Australians follow closely, scrolling for 13.48 hours a week and covering roughly 142 km annually, comparable to climbing Adelaide’s tallest mountain, Mount Lofty, nearly 200 times.  

Queenslanders spend around 12.75 hours scrolling per week, which adds up to about 134 km a year, equal to a round trip from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. In New South Wales, residents scroll for an average of 12.56 hours a week, travelling roughly 132 km annually, or the height of the Sydney Tower Eye more than 427 times. Meanwhile, West Australians sit in the middle of the pack, spending about 13.10 hours scrolling weekly and covering close to 138 km a year, similar to the driving distance between Perth’s outer suburb Rockingham and Bunbury.