Older, poorer, less productive: Australia’s demographic challenge
Ageing societies and shrinking workforces are shaking up the international order and will change the way Australia looks at migration, aged care and the economy.
It has extrapolated that Australia’s population by 2061 will rise well above 36 million and the number of working age people for every one over 65 years could collapse to 2.4 from 3.9 in 2020.
Just over six years ago, then treasurer Joe Hockey said Australians would “fall off their chairs” when they read his department’s 2015 intergenerational report – a snapshot of the nation in 40 years’ time.
So dire would his department’s conclusions be about the long-term outlook that the country’s population would be shocked into supporting big spending cuts. Not only would the fiscal crystal ball reveal the spectre of spiralling debt, Hockey said failure to address the nation’s spending would shatter the “compact between generations”.
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