The McCrindle Blog

Australia’s ageing continues

In just two decades Australia’s median age has increased nearly 5 years (from 32.7 to 37.5 today). In the last 5 years the proportion of our population aged under 20 has declined by a percentage point to be just 1 in 4 Australians (25%) while the proportion aged over 60 has increased by a similar amount to be 1 in 5 (20%). Based on these current demographic trends, by 2028, for the first time in Australia’s history there will be more people aged over 60 than aged under 20.

Click here to download this report as a PDF.

A good news story

The ageing of our population is of course a good news story. The Standardised Death Rate (deaths per 1,000 population) continues to fall (to 5.59- half that of births) while life expectancy continues to rise.

When Australia’s Age Pension was introduced in 1909, life expectancy at birth was 57 while today it exceeds 80. While the accessibility age of 65 for males has not changed in a century, longevity certainly has. In fact so dramatic has been the increase in life expectancy, that averaged across males and females, Australians have gained 25 years of life expectancy in the last 100 years. Or 3 months of life every 12 months of time!

Downagers: redefining the older life stages

Today’s Baby Boomers are the ultimate downagers, redefining lifestages, and reinventing retirement. They have adult children at home longer, they’re buying and selling property later in life, and remaining active in the workforce later than ever before. This is a response to the improved life and health realities. In fact based on years of life expectancy, a 65 year old today is the equivalent of a 54 year old in 1950. It is therefore of little surprise that Australians are younger longer and working later.

Older workers: technical, professional and entrepreneurial

Australia’s workers aged 65 and older currently comprise 3.4% of Australia’s total workforce (393,000 out of 11, 589, 000). The top two job categories of older Australians where more than 1 in 5 are aged 65 or over are professionals (21.4%) and managers (20.4%).

Of Australians 65 and over currently in the workforce, 72% are employees, 23% have their own business, 4% are employers, and 1% are contributing family workers.

Older Australians work the longest hours employed as managers in numerous industries (35 hours per week) and the least hours when employed in the community and personal service work industry (18 hours).

Across all of the industries, the average Australian worker aged 65 and older works 27 hours per week as an employee, 36 hours per week as an employer, 26 hours per week as a business owner, and 18 hours per week as a contributing family worker. Older workers are looking for great flexibility in their working hours and are increasingly not working full-time.

41% of Australians aged 65 and older who work as managers run their own business. This is the highest rate of self-employment across the major industries for this age group. Other industries that display a high percentage of older Australians running their own businesses are technicians and trade workers (27%), labourers (26%) and business services (20%).

As the Director of McCrindle Research, Mark McCrindle headed up the McCrindle Baynes Village Community Report – the largest study into retirement village residents ever conducted in Australia. The project involved a 57 question pen and paper survey, deployed to 181 villages managed by 7 operators. It received over 10,000 completed surveys, representing almost 1 in 10 village residents Australia-wide.

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Seven years ago McCrindle Research began in a spare room of Mark and Ruth McCrindle’s house. With a psychology background, market research experience, and a passion to conduct world class research, Mark began the McCrindle Research story. 

Since then we’ve been commissioned by scores of clients, completed hundreds of projects, interviewed thousands of people, analysed hundreds of thousands of online survey responses, and interpreted millions of data points for our demographic summaries. Our research has been disseminated through hundreds of media articles, more than 10,000 of Mark’s books, and more than 100,000 of our acclaimed A5 population maps.

As Australia’s leading data visualisation researchers, our infographics, slide decks, whitepapers and research summaries have been meeting quite a need for world class research and analysis communicated in relevant, innovative ways. Our analytics tells us that they’ve been getting thousands of views and downloads each day. 

So if you are looking to analyse your market, identify consumer segments, understand the demographics, engage with diverse generations, or respond to the emerging trends, then check out our research packs, Mark’s speaking pack or get in contact for a quote. Through commissioned research projects, focus groups and online surveys, demographic reports, strategic workshops, and keynote presentations, we help organisations know the times.

A post by Mark McCrindle.

With living costs rising, housing affordability challenges, and young Australians starting their earning years later in life after earning a degree, and a study debt, the costs of raising children is a key part of the discussion couples are having when thinking about starting a family.   

However if couples analysed the total cost of raising children in Australia, this nation may well be childless because the final figure is significant. So what’s the number? The cost of raising one child to the point of parental independence (age 24 in Australia) is $597,949 - more than the cost of the just-released Ferrari at $590,000. 

And the cost of raising the average family size (2.7 children) to the age of leaving home for the final time (they're not called the boomerang kids for nothing!) now exceeds 1 million dollars ($1,151,304 to be exact).   While of course parents have no regrets and would never wish to have swapped their house full of children for a garage full of Ferraris, the costs and comparisons do highlight the challenges for parents today, and the importance of any financial benefits and support they receive.

Here are the costs to raise the average family (2.7 kids) to independence (24) today per category. Note: the costs (eg housing) are not the total household costs but only the amount apportioned to the children.

Australia's younger generations tend towards a lifestyle of spending rather than saving. Mark McCrindle was on Today Tonight this Monday with a social commentary on one of the possible causes of this trend.

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If you haven't already, check out our resources page! We have whitepapers, nifty downloadable A5's and excerpts from all of our published books. 

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Australia’s population is ageing rapidly!  The Australian Government Intergenerational Report (2010) states that by 2050, older people (aged 65-84) are expected to more than double and those aged over 85 will more than quadruple.  

In just under forty years, in June 2050, almost one in four Australians (23%) will be aged over 65. 

Four decades ago, Australia’s population could aptly be described as a population pyramid.  Life expectancy tables were such that the population followed a linear pathway with more younger people and as you move up through the age groups, fewer older people (check out slide #4 below).

Today, Australia’s population pyramid has a distinctively rectangular shape, created by both increasing life expectancies as well as the massive Baby Boom generation entering their older years (slide #5). 

The workforce of 2050

The ratio of retirees to workers will double over the next four decades.  In today’s workforce, there is a ratio of 15 workers to 3 retirees!  By 2050, there will be 15 workers to 6 retirees.  As a result, there will be fewer people working to support an increasing proportion of older Australians. 

McCrindle Baynes Villages Census Report 2011

The McCrindle Baynes Villages Census Report 2011 was a comprehensive research project, involving the world’s largest quantitative census of retirement village residents combined with qualitative focus groups of non-residents and demographic analysis of the target cohort.

For more information about the Census Report, please contact McCrindle Research on (02) 8824 3422 or download the PDF summary.