The reluctance by many to accept or even debate the intersection between old age and disability highlights how society struggles to construct differences in ability.
The most recent Australian suicide statistics from 2013 show that, out of the whole population, men aged 85 years and over have the highest suicide rates. While the attention these figures have garnered…
Within three years, Australians will face a $100 billion bill just to cover the age pension and super tax breaks. That bill is set to keep rising; by 2025, one in three of us will be 55-plus.
Active ageing isn’t just about the ability to be physically active or a part of the labour force, but continuing participation in social, economic and cultural life.
The policy solution to the ageing population laid out in the Intergenerational Report benefits the better-off in the future over the less well-off today.
In Australia, the question of how to provide care for ageing family members is largely an individual one. Most care is provided by family members. In 2012, 2.7 million Australians were providing some type…
It’s no secret that the global population is ageing. We’re living longer than ever and are healthier until much later in life. But we’re still struggling to adapt to this changing demographic – and some…
The Australian Study of Health and Relationships (ASHR), the latest findings of which were released recently, has much to commend it. Like its counterpart, the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes…
It’s no news that Australia is undergoing structural ageing – as is the rest of the developed world. Today 14% of Australia’s population is 65 and over. By 2061 this proportion is expected to rise to 22…
Warren Sanderson, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York) and Sergei Scherbov, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
The idea of raising the retirement age is not popular – most people resent being told they must work for longer. But with life expectancies increasing and people enjoying higher quality of life at older…
As the 2014-15 budget nears, Australians are hearing that the government must mount an urgent repair job to address the looming structural crisis that will see the budget in deficit for decades to come…
Despite talk of a housing bubble in Australia, house prices have been flat in real terms over the past six years since the pre-financial crisis peak in December 2007. The weighted average of established…
Britons have been warned that they must save six times more for their pension or face poverty. The message is that it’s time to embrace deferred gratification and start saving. The average pension pot…
China’s rapid economic growth, and the development of Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzen into modern metropolises, might easily give observers the sense of a successful country, full of confidence. Clearly…
Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Unit Head, Twins Research Australia and MyBRISK Centre of Research Excellence in Breast Cancer Risk; Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, The University of Melbourne