Australians wealthier and expected to live longer

Updated on: Thursday, September 16, 2010

A new study has revealed that Australians are wealthier, have better education and are expected to live longer than a decade ago.

A new report of Australian Bureau of Statistics that conducted a study to find if Australia was a better place to live, said, "on an average, Australians born today can expect to live two to three years longer than if they were born 10 years ago."

According to ABC, that quoted the report said those with vocational or higher education also rose significantly in the past decade, from 49 to 63 per cent.

ABS spokeswoman Sue Taylor said, while the nation's general health has improved, others areas have got worse.

"[In] some areas we've actually seemed to go backwards and there's certainly room for improvement. Those two areas that we've identified are in the environment and ...biodiversity," she said.

The report shows the number of endangered species in Australia has risen by 37 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions are 16 per cent higher in 2008 than in 1998.

The report also shows unemployment rates dropped over the past decade from nearly 7 per cent in 1999 to 5.6 per cent in 2009.

And on average Australians earn more money than they did 10 years ago, especially in the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland.

However, Taylor said there was still a growing gap between high and low-income groups.

"In 2007 and 2008 the gap had slightly widened," she said adding "The high-income group received 41 per cent of the total share of income, whereas the low-income group received just 10 per cent.": Study

Australians wealthier and expected to live longer

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