According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the median age of the Australian population has increased to 38 years in 2020 from thirty five years in 2000. Over the last twenty years, Tasmania had the largest increase compared to the other states. The median age in Tasmania increased to 42 years as at 2020 from 37 years in 2000. This increase is attributed to the interstate migration of the younger adults to the Australian mainland from Tasmania. Tasmania had the highest median age at 42 years as at 30th June 2020. South Australia was second with forty years. The lowest median age was that of the Northern Territory with thirty four years and is followed by the Australian Capital Territory with thirty six years(Tam and Clarke, 2015,pp. 436). Table 1 below shows the changes in the median age of the Australian states in the last two decades.
|
State |
2000 |
2020 |
|
NSW |
35.7 |
37.9 |
|
Vic. |
35.6 |
37.1 |
|
Qld |
34.7 |
37.7 |
|
SA |
37.2 |
40.3 |
|
WA |
34.6 |
37.5 |
|
Tas. |
36.7 |
42.3 |
|
NT |
29.2 |
33.5 |
|
ACT |
33.1 |
35.9 |
|
Aust. |
35.4 |
37.7 |
(Source; Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/(Accessed on 30 March 2022)
Just like any other developed country, the population of Australia is made up of the aging population. This is due to sustained low level of fertility as well as an increased life expectancy. This has led to lower proportion of children and a large proportion of the individuals aged sixty five years and above. Figure 1 below is a graphical representation of the population distribution on the basis of sex & age groups in Australia.
Figure 1: Population Distribution on the basis of sex & age
In the past two decades, Australia has witnessed a decrease in the proportion of the children to 18.6% in 2020 from 20.7% in 2000. For the year ending 30th June 2020, there was 0.8% increase in the number of children. The increase was slightly lower compared to the previous year. In 2019, the increase in the number of children was 1.1%. Within this period, there was a decrease of 10,700 (0.7%) in the population of children aged 0-4 years. However, the population of children aged between 5-9 years increased by 10,500. Similarly, there was an increase in the population of children aged between 10- 14 years by 40,300. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest proportional increase in the number of children at 1.9%. It was followed by Victoria with 1.1%. Western Australia had 1.0% while Queensland and New South Wales had 0.9% and 0.7% proportional increase respectively. The only state with a proportional decrease of 0.6% was the Northern Territory (Kook et al, 2022, pp.22). The above statistics relates to the year ending 30th June 2020.
As at 30th June, 2 out of 3 people aged between 15-64 years which is the working- population age. In 2009, there was an increase in the working age population to a high of 67.5%. However, the proportion decreased as at 30th June 2020 to 65.1%. Within the twenty years up to 30th June 2020, there was a growth in the working age population by 31.4% which is slower compared to the remaining population growth. Since 2010, there has been a slower growth in the Australian working-age population. Within the five years till 30th June 2020, there was a growth in the population of the working-age by 6.1% relative to 11.4% for the remaining period. This increase in the growth of the non-working ages is attributed to increase in the population of individuals aged sixty five years and above (Aglietta, 2013, p.34).
There was an increase of 0.8% of the working –age population for the year ending 30th June 2020. In this period, Queensland recorded 1.2% increase in the working age population. This growth is higher compared to the national growth rate. Contrastingly, the Northern Territory recorded 0.7% decrease in the population of individuals aged 15-64 years. As at 30th June 2020, 296,200 people joined the working age population while 263,200 people who turned sixty five years exited this population (Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/(Accessed on 30 March 2022).
Figure 2 below is graphical comparison of the growth rate Australian working & non-working –age population
(Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/(Accessed on 30 March 2022)
In the last two decades, Australia has recorded an increase of 16.3% of the individuals aged between sixty five years and above. In 2000, the proportion increase in this population was 12.4%. However this proportion of this population is projected to even increase further within the next decade as individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964 will join this group(Wilson, 2017,pp.186). Figure 3 is a graphical representation of the proportion of the Australian population aged 65 years and above.
Figure 3; Graphical representation of the proportion of the population aged between sixty five years and above
There was increase of 145,600 people aged sixty five years as at 30th June 2020. Within this period, all the Australian states recorded a growth in the proportion of this population. Northern Territory recorded the largest increase at 6.4%. Western Australia and Queensland recorded 4.6% and 4.0% increase respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/(Accessed on 30 March 2022)
In the last two decades, Australia recorded a 110% increase in the proportion of the population aged eighty five years and above relative to the growth of the total population of 35%. There was an increase of 12,400 people aged eighty five years and above as at 30th June 2020. In this group the number of females (323,200) was higher than that of the males (204,200) showing that females have a higher life expectancy (McDonald, 2017, p.12).
In the past twenty years the population of Australia has grown from 18.5 million to 24.7 million people. The growth rate therefore is approximately 35%. Even though the statistics on the Australian population keeps on fluctuating, the population exhibits positive population increase trend. This growth trend is attributed to two main factors that include:
Immigration; in 2009, the population of Australia recorded a 2% increase. Of this increase, the Net Overseas Migration (NOM) accounted for 64% of this trend. In the recent years, the leading contributor to NOM is not the permanent migrants but rather people who are entering Australia on the long-term temporary visas (Simon, 2018). These are mainly the overseas students as well as temporary skilled migrants. There is high demand of foreigners to work and live in Australia. The need for studying in the country is also higher among the foreigners. The country presents more opportunities for foreign migrants to enter. Between the years 2015 & 2016, the country issued approximately 190,000 visas both for entry of the refugees & humanitarians. The migrants contributes hugely to the population growth of the capital cities in the country. As at 2016, 83% of the population born overseas were living in major cities. Approximately 40% of the population born overseas were living in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne & Pert (Burkett et al, 2016, pp.246). Between 1996 and 2016, migration contributed to approximately 54% of the total increase in the population of Australia in the major cities. Outside the cities, migration contributed to 26% of the population increase in regions of the country. The contribution of the migrants accounted for 50% of the total population increase in regions such as Riverina & New England in NSW(Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/( Accessed on 30 March 2022)
Natural Births; in 2016, Australia recorded the highest number of births at 311,104. Over the years the country has witnessed a higher increase in the number of natural births. The contribution of natural births to the population growth of Australia is to be 44% which is around 157,000 each year (Richmond, 2018, pp.723). The fertility rate in Australia is relatively healthy averaging to almost 1.9 babies per woman.
Due to the growth in population there have been massive changes in the business environment in Australia. A large proportion of the Australian population is made up of the aged and this has a huge impact on the business environment. The growing rate in the population affects the business environment. Due to these demographic changes, the following changes have been witnessed in the business environment:
Improvements in innovation and technology; aging population is associated with lower productivity of labour. This is because older employees are less in training, education as well as healthy compared to their younger counterparts. Older workers are also less in innovation and creativity. Their entrepreneurial motives are also very low since they are avoiding risks. However due to immigration of young skilled workers, the Australian business environment has been transformed (Parker, 2017, pp.483). The young –skilled migrants are fully of energy, very innovative and creative. Similarly, these individuals have entrepreneurial motives since they are risk takers. The massive entry of young migrants to the country helps in the generation of ideas for technological progress. A larger population has a higher potential of innovativeness. The rate of population growth is commensurate to the rate at which potentiality of innovation grows. Population growth is therefore the leading driver of technological innovation as seen in the case of Australia.
Increased human capital; due to population increase mainly through immigration of the skilled workers, businesses in Australia have been able to access a large pool of skilled workers. Due to the government policy which has been designed to allow more migrants on sectors where the country is facing shortages, the business have been able to obtain access large pool of professionals. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/( Accessed on 30 March 2022), between the years 2004 and 2005, the Australian business environment gained more when the government through the Skilled Migration program issued visas which is approximately 60% of the total migration.
Changes in Business Compliance; due to immigration, the government has established regulations that has an impact on the business environment. The Migration Amendment Bill has been introduced to protect migrant workers from being exploited by businesses. Business are penalized if they are found guilty of exploitative practices against the migrant workers. The legislation leads to changes in the business environment since they have to put in place measures to ensure compliance with this proposed legislation. Under- payment of wages is one of the practices that is prohibited by this legislation (Howard, 2019, pp.81). This requires the business to revise their payment and compensation structure to ensure compliance with the said legislation. Businesses are obliged to establish new tools of compliance to meet the demands of this legislation. Business are also required to adopt the use of Visa Entitlement Verification Online to make sure that the immigration status of the prospective employees has undergone appropriate checks before these individuals are hired by business organizations.
References
Aglietta, M., 2013. ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2008) Perth: A Social Atlas. Catalogue number 2030.5. Canberra.——(2011) Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2009–10 Population Estimates:[Totals] by Geographic Classification [ASGC 2010], 2001 to 2010. Report no. 3218.0. Transforming Urban Transport: The Ethics, Politics and Practices of Sustainable Mobility, 7, p.234.
Australian Bureau of Statistics available at https://www.abs.gov.au/(Accessed on 30 March 2022)
Burkett, E., Martin-Khan, M.G., Scott, J., Samanta, M. and Gray, L.C., 2016. Trends and predicted trends in presentations of older people to Australian emergency departments: effects of demand growth, population aging and climate change. Australian Health Review, 41(3), pp.246-253.
Howard, C., 2019. The politics of numbers: explaining recent challenges at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Journal of Political Science, 54(1), pp.65-81.
Kok, M.R., Tuson, M., Turlach, B., Boruff, B., Vickery, A. and Whyatt, D., 2022. Impact of Australian Bureau of Statistics data perturbation techniques on the precision of Census population counts, and the propagation of this impact in a geospatial analysis of high-risk foot hospital admissions among an Indigenous population. Australian Geographer, pp.1-22.
McDonald, P., 2017. International migration and employment growth in Australia, 2011–2016. Australian Population Studies, 1(1), pp.3-12.
Parker, T. (2017). The DataLab of the Australian bureau of statistics. Australian Economic Review, 50(4), 478-483.
Richmond, R.L., 2018. The changing face of the Australian population: growth in centenarians. Medical Journal of Australia, 188(12), pp.720-723.
Simon-Davies, J., 2018. Population and migration statistics in Australia. Department of Parliamentary Services, Parliamentary Library.
Tam, S.M. and Clarke, F., 2015. Big data, official statistics and some initiatives by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. International Statistical Review, 83(3), pp.436-448.
Wilson, T., 2017. The forecast accuracy of Australian Bureau of Statistics national population projections. Journal of Population Research, 24(1), pp.91-117.
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