Is life getting better in NSW? Here’s how the government is finding out

June 8, 2026 — 5:00am

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Is life getting better in NSW?

Some key economic indicators suggest the answer is yes: the state’s output has expanded steadily in the past few years and unemployment has been fairly low.

But there’s more to life than growth figures and many things that contribute to our collective welfare are not captured by traditional economic statistics.

With that in mind, the NSW government has started tracking the wellbeing of residents, not just dollars and cents, as part of its annual budget.

The second NSW Performance and Wellbeing Framework will be published with the state budget on June 23. It tracks wellbeing across eight indicators: health, skills, prosperity, housing, security, community, connectedness and sustainability.

Several wealthy nations have developed ways to measure the wellbeing of their citizens amid concerns regular economic statistics do not provide sufficiently detailed information about the quality of life........

© The Sydney Morning Herald