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More centenarians in Australia than ever before: stats

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

More Australians than ever before are reaching the milestone of turning 100 years of age, according to new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday.

The number of Australians reaching the milestone grew by 550 to 4,440 over 2014/15, however females continue to dominate the number of centenarians, making up almost four times the number of males.

This coincides with recent statistics from the ABS which show females in Australia have a higher life expectancy than males, while the figures also showed that Australia's population continues to age, another reflection of the nation's growing life expectancy.

Beidar Cho, Director of Demography at the ABS said that modern medicine and better living conditions have contributed to prolonged living in Australia.

"Over the last 20 years, the proportion of the 65 and over population has increased from 12 percent to 15 percent," Cho said on Thursday.

"Over the year to June 2015 the working-age population - traditionally considered those aged 15 to 64 - grew at 1.0 percent whilst the non-working-age population (aged 0-14 and 65+), grew at 2.1 percent. This follows a pattern that has been evident since 2010 and is mostly related to the growth in the 65 and over population."

Cho said these figures were likely to increase further as Australia's baby boomers continue to age, while Australia's fertility rate continues to fall.

"This trend is expected to continue as increasing numbers of baby boomers reach 65. In contrast, the last 20 years have seen the proportion of children aged 0-14 decrease from 22 percent to 19 percent as our fertility rate drops," she said.

Meanwhile, Australia's population grew by 317,000 people - or 1.4 percent - over the 2014/15 year to reach 23.8 million, with the ABS predicting that the nation's population will surpass 24 million sometime in mid-February, 2016.

All states recorded positive population growth over the previous 12 months, with Victoria posting the highest percentage increase with 1.7 percent, while Tasmania's population grew the slowest at just 0.4 percent. Endit