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Article: Population ageing in Australia: policy implications of recent projections.(immigration policy)(Report)
- Article from:
- People and Place
- Article date:
- December 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Monash University, Centre for Population and Urban Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SMALLER FAMILIES, LONGER LIVES, AND AN OLDER AGE STRUCTURE
During the baby boom after WWII annual fertility was high. In 1961 the total fertility rate (TFR) reached a peak of 3.54, but then soon began to decline, eventually falling below the replacement level of 2.1 in 1976. (1) From the late 1990s the TFR has been hovering around 1.8. (2) Thus the last thirty years have seen a significant change in the number of children born to Australian families. Even during the 1930s depression fertility did not fall below 2.1. (3)
This reduction in family size has been echoed in other developed countries. Over a rather longer time period, mortality has fallen as ...