Nova Scotia's auditor general appears worried about where the province is heading in terms of fiscal sustainability.

In his latest report, Michael Pickup notes the five-year trend is "unfavourable" when it comes to six key sustainability indicators:

net long-term debt

net debt

net debt per capita

net debt as a percentage of total revenue

annual surplus or deficit

net debt as a percentage of provincial GDP

The report states sustainability "measures the ability of a government to maintain its existing programs and services."

The province gets a rating of "stable" in two other fiscal categories: debt servicing costs as a percentage of total revenue and federal government transfers as a percentage of total revenues.

Overall, the provincial government owes $15,944 for every Nova Scotian.

That's an increase of $2,436 per person from four years ago when the per capita debt was $13,508.

The report offers no comment on the growing debt load, other than to state the obvious.

"The indicator shows that the Government of Nova Scotia owes $15,944 for each Nova Scotian for past decisions that resulted in spending exceeding revenues."