Rapid growth of Australia’s ageing population revealed
Every year for the next 10 years, Australia will have an additional 40,000 people aged 85 and older.
The 2025 Population Statement, prepared by the Government’s Centre for Population, was released on 9 January, and the projections for our ageing population are sobering.
Within five years, the number of Australians aged 85 and older will have increased by 25% to 753,000.
In other words, that’s 30,000 additional people every year falling into the cohort most likely to require some form of aged care.
In Australia, there are already well over 200,000 older Australians waiting to access aged care services.
The country has hospitals overflowing with patients unable to gain a place in residential aged care. More than 100,000 older Australians are waiting on Government-funded home care, and similar numbers are simply waiting to be assessed to enter the aged care system.
Over-85s to jump over next decade
The projections show the number of older Australians accelerates even faster over 10 years.
Within a decade, the number of Australians aged 85 and older will have jumped 67% from 2024-25 to more than one million. That’s growth of about 40,000 a year.
Within 30 years, the number of Australians aged 85 and older will have tripled to nearly two million by 2065-66.
Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers highlighted the budgetary impact.
“Population ageing will continue to drive demand for health care services and aged care, placing greater pressure on the budget,” he said.
The Centre for Population (CPOP) was established in 2019 by the then-Morrison Government to provide research, data, and forecasts on Australia’s population, with the aim of informing policy on growth, migration, fertility.
You can read the report in full here.
