Intergenerational Report 2023 Summary

Economics, Population, Schools Colleges and Universities / Anubhav Tewari, Peter Buckingham, Spectrum Analysis Australia
2023 Intergenerational Report Australian Government

Intergenerational Report 2023 Summary

By Peter Buckingham and Anubhav Tewari

The Sixth Intergenerational Report was released on 24 August 2023 by our current treasurer Jim Chalmers.

This document is the summation of what the Government expects Australia to do in terms of populations and broad demographics over the next 40 years, and comes with quite a lot of “provisos” to reflect the uncertainty that may occur.

The last Intergenerational Report was released by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in 2021, and the effects of the COVID epidemic were uncertain at the time, leading to a short gap of only two years to this report.

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-08/p2023-435150.pdf

Brief Summary

An extra 13.8 million people will call Australia home in another 40 years from now. This would take our population from 26.7 million to 40.5 million people.

Whilst an extra 13.8 million people is a lot, the population growth which will result in these extra people is estimated to be 1.1% pa which is quite low. The underlying causes for the slow growth may include low fertility rates, having children later in life (and smaller families), and a lack of growth in overseas migration (assumed to be fixed at 235,000 people per year in this report).

With an increased life expectancy and an aging population, one thing is for certain is that the care economy will boom in the next few decades. However, we are curious to see the latest statistics and assumptions at the other end of the age spectrum, i.e., relating to number of students participating in education and training.

As per the last Intergenerational Report of 2021, “The proportion of the population in the principal age group for education (5 to 24 years old) has decreased from 27.5 per cent in 2001-02 to an estimated 24.6 per cent in 2021-22.

It is expected that the proportion of the population in this age group will fall to 22.1 per cent by 2060-61.” If this trend is projected again as per the latest report, this could mean that schools and tertiary educational institutions may attract relatively fewer enrolments in the future.

If you are like us and enjoy statistics and numbers, we hope you have some interesting reading.

ISBN: 978-1-925832-81-5
Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia 2023
License type: CC BY
Access Rights Type: open
Post date: 24 August 2023