Implications of our ageing society

Abstract

We have, in Australia today, a higher proportion of elderly people than we have ever had in the past. If we look back at ageing in Australia we would find very few elderly people -somewhere around 4 per cent of the population at the beginning of this century were aged 65 or over, compared with 10.25 per cent today. Then those older people were among the poorest, most marginal and most isolated people in our community. Shifts in population structure, particularly increases in the so-called 'dependent' populations have serious implications for resource allocation in areas of income support and service provision.