The ACT is the best placed part of Australia to survive and bounce back from big shocks to the economy, according to an analysis by one of the world's big accountancy firms.
But it's not as resilient as it was, according to KPMG which assessed how well parts of Australia could rebound from a serious economic buffeting.
And one dark sign is that Canberran men are living shorter lives, perhaps partly because of deaths from alcohol.
The researchers compared all the states and territories in Australia using a set of very varied characteristics, ranging from how diverse the economy is to how many people participate in sport.
Education levels, whether people vote, life expectancy, the proportion of poor people and how many immigrants were also put into the mix.
In economic terms, relatively large numbers of immigrants is regarded as a plus because economists believe they often bring skills and a work ethic.
The KPMG researchers combined these measures to derive a "Regional Capacity Index" to indicate how well a place might rebound from shocks like the financial collapse of 2008 or a trade war between the US and China.
The ACT comes out top - and by a long way.
The authors put the ACT "at the top of the rankings due to its strong social and community factors.
"Victoria ranks as Australia's second most resilient jurisdiction, because of its strong economic capacity. NSW ranks third, marginally ahead of QLD and WA".
The report cites some of the strengths of the ACT. "It consistently achieves very high levels of educational attainment, high life expectancy and female participation in the labour force and comparatively moderate levels of household poverty."
There are some black spots. The ACT is not as far ahead as it was four years ago when the previous report was done.
That's partly because life expectancy has fallen in the ACT while it has risen in the rest of Australia - Canberrans aren't living as long.
The authors partly blame Canberran men who, the figures show, are drinking more and dying earlier: "The decline in average life expectancy in the ACT was solely the result of reduced life expectancy in men living in the jurisdiction which fell from 81.7 years in 2014 to 81.1 years in 2018.
"During this time there has been a noticeable increase in the number of deaths of men caused by alcoholic liver disease, diseases of the digestive system, and mental and behavioural disorders."
The report also says that the ACT, unlike the rest of Australia apart from Tasmania, saw a fall in sports participation.
This was because the population has gotten older over the past four years.
Between 2014 and 2018, the number of people over the age of 65 in the ACT rose by 8000, making up 13 per cent of the territory's population.
Resilience in the face of future shocks does not necessarily mean mean prosperity at the moment - an economy might be well placed to rebound from a future shock while its people are currently not that well off.
But the authors say that a resilient economy is well placed to grow in future.
They say its 2019 report "shows a close correlation between resilience and growth, with ACT, Victoria and NSW's growth rates from 2014 to 2018 mirroring their top three resilience rankings".
