Graph 2 Age and sex distribution profile of population - 1954 and 2004

Graph 2

Age and sex distribution profile of population - 1954 and 2004

(a) The 85+ age group includes all ages 85 years and over and is not directly comparable with the other 5-year age groups.

20. Australia’s population is ageing because of sustained low fertility - which has resulted in proportionally fewer children in the population - and increased life expectancy. The projections show that the ageing of the Australian population, already evident, is set to continue. The median age of Australia’s population is projected to increase from 35.9 years in 200-02 to between 40.4

and 42.3 years in 2020-21 and to between 46.0 and 49.9 years in 2050-51. The proportion of the population aged 65 years and over is expected to increase substantially from 12 per cent in 1999 to between 24 per cent and 27 per cent in 2051.

Births

Graph 3

Total fertility rate (a), Australia

Source: ABS, Births Australia 2004 (Cat. No. 3301.0).

22. Of all births registered in Australia in 2004, an estimated 5 per cent (12,000) were Indigenous - that is, at least one parent identified as Indigenous. Indigenous women have a higher fertility rate (2.14 babies per woman) than all women, largely due to relatively high fertility at younger ages. In 2004, women under 30 years of age accounted for almost three quarters of the total Indigenous fertility, compared to half of the fertility for all women. The median age of Indigenous women who registered a birth in 2004 was 24.6 years, six years younger than the median age of all women who registered a birth (30.6 years).

Life expectancy

23. Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex might expect to live if the age-specific death rates of the given period continued throughout his or her remaining lifetime.

24. Over the past 50 years the average life expectancy of a new-born boy has increased from 67 years in the period 1953-55 to 78 years in 2002-04. Likewise, the average life expectancy of a new-born girl has increased from 73 to 83 years during the same period (see Graph 4 below). The increase in life expectancy at birth is due to declining death rates at all ages.

Graph 4

Life expectancy at birth, Australia, 1904-2004

25. Australians’ life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. Australian men and women can expect to enjoy good health for around 90 per cent of their average life span, with

only 10 per cent of their time lived with illness or disability. This compares favourably with other countries that have high life expectancies.

26. Differences in Indigenous and total mortality are reflected in substantially lower life expectancy for the Indigenous population. At the national level, life expectancy at birth for the period 1996-2001 was estimated to be about 59 years for Indigenous males and 65 years for Indigenous females (including an adjustment for the estimated under-coverage of Indigenous deaths), around 17 years lower than the average life expectancy for all Australians born in the same period.

Deaths

27. In 2004, 132,500 deaths (68,400 males and 64,100 females) were registered in Australia, an increase of 200 deaths (or 0.2 per cent) compared with the number of deaths registered in 2003 (132,300). Since 1984 the number of deaths has increased by 0.9 per cent on average annually. The steady increase in the number of deaths over time reflects the increasing size of the population and, in particular, the increasing number of older people. With continued ageing of the population the number of deaths will continue to rise, with deaths projected to outnumber births sometime in the 2040s.

Household size

28. At 30 June 2002, there were an estimated 7.5 million households in Australia, which were home to 19.4 million Australians, or 98 per cent of the resident population. Over the past 90 years the number of households has increased by an average 2.4 per cent per year, compared to 1.6 per cent average increase per year in the population over the same period. Reflecting the disproportionate growth in households is the fall in average size of households - from 4.5 persons per household in 1911 to 2.6 persons per household in 2002. Much of the decline in the number of persons per household over this period can be attributed to reductions in completed family size, and the associated increase in one and two-person households over the period. The number of one-person households has grown largely from the ageing of the population, while a combination of ageing, increased childlessness among couples and an increase in the number of one-parent families has contributed to the increase in the number of two-person households.

Graph 5

Average household size, persons per household

29. One-parent families also increased, from 552,400 in 1991 to 762,600 in 2001, an increase of 38 per cent.

Download 1.91 Mb.

Share with your friends: