Sydney: Australians are living longer and getting richer, but paying for it with more greenhouse gas emissions and lower air quality, according to a new report.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released Measures of Australia’s Progress: Summary Indicators 2005, which looks at whether life is better now than 10 years ago.

Girls born today are still expected to live longer than boys, but boys are catching up. Life expectancy for girls rose two years to nearly 83 years, while for boys it rose three years to nearly 78.
Australians are also earning more, with real income increasing by an average 3.1 per cent a year.

But greenhouse gas emissions are rising. In 2002 they were 8.8 per cent higher than 10 years ago, with Australians churning out 550 megatonnes of carbon dioxide a year.