Ageing Australian Population
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The ageing Australian population is not posing a significant risk to our economy. It has been said and proven that the Australian population is rapidly ageing and many of our seniors have not saved enough to support themselves and the “pre seniors” are saving even less. But is this really a crisis? It has been proven that seniors in this day and age are working longer and living longer and healthier. On the other hand it is argued that it also leads to increased funding required for health care due to epidemics of dimeters and Alzheimers. So do the positives out weigh the negatives? Does it prove that the ageing crisis is not at all posing a risk to out economy?
The Australian workforce is ageing because the baby boom generation is getting older and proportionately fewer younger people are replacing them. Because we are living longer, and women are having fewer children, and the big baby boom group is about to retire early, Australia will face an “age dependency problem”. However a look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the male workforce participation for the ages 55 to 64 has declined somewhat, an increase in the female participation rate has more than compensated for it. In fact, the participation rate for the ages 55 to 64 has increased by about 8% since the early 80s. But what does this say? It means that the older population are already working longer. There is no doubt that the population is ageing, birth rates have been falling for the past 20 years and the baby boomers are fast closing in on 60 and the median age is set to rise by 14% by 2051.
It is easy to see the negatives about such an important factor in the economic industry, but who said that these future predictions are not myths? A closer inspection of the workforce participation data reveals that the main change is not ageing but womens increased participation. As more women, especially those aged 35 and up joined the workforce, its average age increased. Baby boomer ageing is a much less important factor. Research has shown that 70% of workers are wiling to delay retirement voluntarily and that seniors are working longer and we have a more productive economy. This can build up more saving and superannuation for a better quality of life in retirement. The number of hospital beds taken up by people over 65 has not increased because people are living longer and healthier, from 63 to 83, there are at least 10 to 12 years of productive good health. Not that long ago, they would work until 65 and basically have seven years average of life