Victorians have become poorer than residents all other states and territories except one

Victorians have become poorer than residents all other states and territories except South Australia, new research has revealed.

Economist Saul Eslake says economic growth per person and household disposable income per head reveal how Victoria has declined in the past decade.

Victoria’s household disposable income per person was lower than every other state and territory except South Australia in 2019-2020, before extensive COVID-19 lockdowns.

The poor performance comes on the back of years of weak household incomes, falling economic growth and and poor productivity.

Mr Eslake says the decline has been masked by record migration numbers.

“They reality seems to be that although on the surface Victoria has had strong economic growth over the last 10 years, faster, slightly, than the national average, this has increasingly relied on population growth,” he told Ross and Russel.

“In the three years prior to the onset of COVID, Victoria was getting almost a third of Australia’s national migrant intake despite having only a quarter of the nation’s population.”

If the impact of population growth is excluded, Victoria’s economic growth over the past decade has been half the national average.

Press PLAY below to hear more about Saul Eslake’s findings