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The Australian Population In The Future

The following graphs will help to highlight the way in which the Australian population is expected to change over the next fifty years. These graphs are known as population pyramids. Each graph is designed to show the number of males and females in a particular age bracket at a certain point in time.

In the year 2000 there were just under twenty million people living in Australia. You can see in the graph that the split between males and females was roughly equal, although there are slightly more women at the top of the scale.

Most importantly, you can see that there were more young people in the country than there were older Australians. For many centuries this has been the natural progression - as people grow older and die, more and more new babies are being born. This allows the population to increase, and the number of young people has always outnumbered the group of older people.


By 2025, things have already started to change. The birth rate is already decreasing in Australia, and is now below the replacement rate. Improvements in diet and medical treatments are helping to ensure that people are living longer. These two factors combine to change the shape of the population pyramid for Australia - we have an ageing population. This is a problem which is being experienced in many developed countries around the world. And it could get even worse….


By 2050 the number of people aged over 80 will clearly be the largest group in the economy. At the same time, the number of people who are considered to be of “working age” will be falling. In other words, we will have fewer productive people, and they will be providing for a larger population. In addition, the needs of the population at that time will be very different from those which people have today.

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