For Australia, the median age is 37.2 years. The Northern Territory is the youngest state or territory with a a median age of 32.4 years and Tasmania is the oldest at 42 years.
Artificial islands that are now mushrooming across the ocean are regarded as ‘engineering marvels’. But, little attention is paid to how these human-made structures affect sea life.
Bob Carr has a decades-long record of opposition to a ‘big Australia’.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Most surveys are consistent in finding there is a substantial minority of the view that immigration is too high, but not a large majority.
Tasmania’s ageing population matters because as people get older they become more reliant on the services provided by governments (for example pensions, health and aged care).
Dave Hunt/AAP
Population growth for growth’s sake (as a proxy for economic growth), without consideration for the demands this creates might actually compromise Tasmania’s economy.
Understanding population density takes more than just arithmetic – that’s where mapping can help reveal which countries and cities are really getting cramped.
Australia’s coastline has moved before thanks to changes in sea level.
Flickr/Travellers travel photobook
Across Japan, towns and villages are vanishing as the population ages and young people move to the cities. How the country manages this holds lessons for other developed nations facing a similar fate.
Kinshasa, 2016, capital of Republic of the Congo, and home to about 12 million people is one of the most populous cities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Eduardo Soteras/AFP
The baby bonus did its job, encouraging people to have more children at a time when fertility rates were low.
The Danish Choir “Gangstativerne”, singing.
at a conference launching the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity Between Generations in 2012.
DG EMPL/ flickr
William Isdale speaks with Nancy Pachana about why we should stop thinking about ageing as a time of decline, and focus on engaging and leveraging the experience of our elders.
Contraceptives lie at the heart of proper family planning but in Nigeria uptake has been slow.
Shutterstock
Nigeria must reduce its population growth to increase the quality of life for people in the country. A better knowledge of contraceptives can help achieve this.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan responds to a question from a Q&A audience member.
Q&A
Do Muslim couples in Australia have ‘on average 4.5 children’ while other couples have ‘1.5 children’? Could Australia have a ‘Muslim majority’ in ‘a couple’ of generations? Let’s check the evidence.
Many people in culturally diverse populations in Western Sydney have lived in Australia for many years, if not several generations.
Shutterstock
Reasoned debates on sustainable migration intake levels are important. But transport and health infrastructure shortfalls in Western Sydney won’t be solved by reactive anti-immigration attitudes.
Australia might have been ‘built on the sheep’s back’ but we can’t eat off it.
Stanley Zimny/Flickr
Australia feeds tens of millions, at home and abroad. But if our population doubles by 2061, as some projections suggest, we’ll need some smart strategies to keep those people fed.
Our national wellbeing probably peaked with Australia’s population at roughly 15 million in the 1970s, when this photo was taken in Hunters Hill, Sydney.
John Ward/flickr
Australia’s GPI, a broad measure of national wellbeing, has stalled since 1974. So what has been the point of huge population and GDP growth since then if we and our environment are no better off?
International migrants are key contributors to the unskilled workforce.
World Bank/flickr
Considering all the aspects of life in Australia that are affected by population, it’s remarkable that the nation doesn’t have a national policy on it.
The ABS estimates that as of December 2016, the Australian population was around 24.4 million.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Anthropologue et démographe, professeur émérite au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle et conseiller de la direction de l'INED, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)