Services gap to be filled as blokes fall off the perch

I HAVE written extensively about the skills and tax issues that flow from the onset of the baby bust.

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I HAVE written extensively about the skills and tax issues that flow from the onset of the baby bust beginning in the 2010s, but there are other less glamorous demographic issues also looming.

And none more so than an expected epidemic of "aloneness" in the 2020s.

After 60 years of a tribal familial basis to Australian society, the demographic fulcrum is shifting away from families through couples and on into the challenges of singledom.

There are two types of singledom: there is singledom by choice (separation, divorce, never married) and there is widowhood.

Over the past decade, singledom-by-choice has ascended, as 20-somethings in particular pursued various life and partner options before committing to marriage by 30.

And even those approaching middle age are getting in on the single act with almost half of all marriages ending in divorce and most separations occurring before the age of 40.

But widowhood is different. No one really chooses to be a widow.

And yet, sadly for many, it is a segment of the life cycle that is unavoidable.

The fact is that most women in a relationship will spend part of their lives as a widow.

On average, women live three years longer than men so there are three years of widowhood right there.

But add to this the fact that women on average marry men two years older means that women typically spend about five years as a widow.

And again, if we are looking at this by the numbers, then widowhood blossoms for women from the age of 77 onwards, which is exactly two years before the average age at death for men.

Here is an unpleasant demographic fact: widowhood looms with a ruthless certainty as the life cycle progresses.

Based on my analysis of recent census results, barely 1 per cent of the 40-something population is widowed.

This rises to 3 per cent in the 50s, 9 per cent in the 60s, 24 per cent in the 70s and 54 per cent beyond 80.

But these are snapshots of the widowed population so they do not reflect the full widow experience because the census merely asks if you are widowed now.

To be blunt about this issue, 40-something widows (both male and female) have an economic and sexual value in the re-partnering market so most don't stay widowed for long.

The chances of finding, and the predisposition to wanting, another life partner diminish later in the life cycle, although for many I suspect that the primal desire for companionship is always there. Not so much for sex as for the sharing of life's trials and tribulations.

For others there is contentment in the solitude and independence of widowhood: you are not accountable to anyone any more.

And then, of course, there is always the love, the engagement and the support of family and friends.

However, many widows will jauntily explain that their circle of friends is diminishing because of that same mortal force that took their husbands.

As a consequence, the role of the family is critical in the widowed years.

Is there no more contented person on the planet than a grandmother in the bosom of her extended family replete with grandchildren on Christmas Day?

Forget peak oil, the new demographic imperative will be peak widow at some point in the 2020s when women born in the 1950s baby boom lose their husbands. By my estimates there are about 300,000 70-something widows in Australia today; by 2031 this number will rise to perhaps 600,000.

More widows will, of course, surface in the 60- and 80-something markets over the next 20 years, but these populations will not quite double as will the 70-something widow heartland.

This rise of an unwanted aloneness in the 2020s will place pressure on families to remain connected: perhaps there will be a business in teaching grandma how to Skype (or whatever the equivalent will be) in the 2020s.

However, connectivity will be difficult for Generation Ys living interstate or perhaps overseas in their middle age.

This skyrocketing of the widowed population raises other issues: older women living alone in suburbia will lead to concerns about home security.

Life alone might also lead to an obsession with health or perhaps to a rise in elderly depression.

There will surely be greater demand for companion animals: so much more orderly than a husband, don't you think? And possibly more affectionate. And cleaner. And if not companion animals, then what about same-sex companion relationships: widows hooking up in share houses to provide each other with support.

Many widows will remain steadfast in the family home, requiring either family or council services to support their independence.

Every effort should be made to keep older Australians in their family homes regardless of whether they are widowed or not. This is not because of any sentimentality about the family home (although this is critical to older people); it is because assisted living requires taxpayer support.

Widows and other older Australians remaining in the family home are supported by family. Given the fact that many boomers will spend their later years as widows, do you think it would be a good idea to develop training or information or support programs to help older Australians through what must seem to them as life's final challenge?

KPMG partner Bernard Salt is also an adjunct professor at Curtin University Business School;

Linkedin/BernardSalt