Australia's Ageing Population

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[Nam of Institution]Australia's Ageing Population

Introduction

Through the past many decades, an immense change has occurred in a chief demographic sphere of the human population on the planet and that is age. Our existing corpus of scientific knowledge indicates that the history of mankind has at all times been noticeable by augmented birth rates which go together with equally augmented death rates. Traditionally, most of the people all over the world have been aged at some point amidst the then-current range of ages or have apt to be younger as compared to the mediocre age. Nevertheless, because of the tendency of diminished birth and death rates, one amongst every ten persons on Earth is now equal to or more than sixty years of age (www.aph.gov.au). If this existing trend of diminished birth and death rates persists, by the end of the year 2050, almost half of the Australian population would be of people over sixty years of age or even above that (Blane, 2006). Several regimes have set up support systems for old age people like discounted or free medicinal care or social security. Nevertheless, majority of these systems have been established on the basis that there would be considerably smaller number of elderly people at all times as compared to the middle aged or younger persons subsisting at a time. Hence, due to the diminishing death rates, such systems are starting to sense a pressure which would only amplify with the passage of time (Keleher & MacDougall, 2009). Moreover, the ratio of support to elder people is declining in more as well as lesser developed areas that might further diminish the capability of the governments and societies to care for the old age populations (Paola, 2003). These demographic changing trends yield distinctive challenges for all individuals, especially for the regimes of nation states all through the world.

Economic implications of an ageing population

Increase in the national health costs

The ageing population poses many challenges on the strategies made by the government of a country. It is but true that the ageing population is an economic burden on the country. This is so because they are not an active participant in economy. By that age, they no longer remain active to get engaged in some productive activities and hence they need to be supported by others to pursue their living (Mathers, 2007). The younger population is forced to earn for them and the aged people are a liability to them. The increasing number of aged people in the society with only a little of the younger or the productive population is a weakness for the society as a whole. The younger ones have to earn quite a lot for catering to their elder family members apart from coping with their personal expenses and the daily budgetary of their living (www.who.int). In addition, the health cost and budget in such countries is relatively higher. The ageing population redeems the health insurance more than the younger lot (Saltman, 2006). An increasing number of ...