NSW Treasury has released a unique snapshot detailing how NSW is expected to change over the next 40 years and the economic opportunities and challenges the State faces.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the report, 2021-22 NSW Intergenerational Report (IGR), is produced by NSW Treasury once every five years and brings together key demographic, housing, workforce and economic forecasts.
Mr Perrottet said the latest Report projects that by 2061 the people of NSW could expect to live longer lives, have more flexible career options and enjoy a higher standard of living.
“It also identifies a range of challenges, such as a growing and ageing population, which will place greater demands on the State’s resources,” Mr Perrottet said.
“The way things will look for the people of NSW in 40 years will be vastly different to the world today,” he said.
“If we are to ensure the next generation enjoys the same levels of prosperity and opportunity that we have today it is vital we identify future challenges and work to overcome them.”
Mr Perrottet said the IGR was an essential tool for sizing up the challenges current and future generations were likely to face, and enabled NSW Governments to proactively address them.
He said the Report was designed to assist policy makers, both inside and outside Government plan for the future by providing informative insights to compel them to “cast their imaginations wide” and develop solutions to future challenges.
He said the IGR projected that productivity would become the biggest driver of economic growth; the fiscal gap would be 2.6 per cent of GSP by 2060-61; the NSW population would expand by around 40 per cent; life expectancy for people born in 2061 would increase to almost 92 years for women and just over 89 years for men; and up to 1.7-million additional homes would be needed by 2061.
The Minister said the Report also found jobs would require a more highly skilled workforce and would be increasingly concentrated in the social services and business services sectors, and that the average full-time wages would be around $139,000 per year in today’s dollars (compared to $86,000 in 2018-19).
“These updates refine the picture of the future we face,” he said.
“Yet despite all that has changed, the fundamental challenges remain largely the same: an ageing population, a widening ‘fiscal gap’ between declining Government revenues and growing expenditure pressures; and rapid transformation in an economy that will increasingly rely on improved productivity for growth,” Mr Perrottet said.
Treasury’s 118-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
