Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Baby Boomers and the age wave

Australian economist, Ross Gittins has some interesting observations to make about the much maligned baby boomers and their effect on the imminent age wave.

"increasing longevity and declining fertility are the two dominant influences over population ageing... had there been no baby boom, population ageing would have started a lot earlier than it did, with the age dependency rate (the ratio of those aged 65 and over to those aged 15 to 64) higher than projected until the mid-2030s... so the main effect of the baby boom has been to defer population ageing and make its onset more pronounced."

For a fuller and much more eloquent explanation see Ross Gittins (2007) Gittinomics, Chap 10 "Our ageing population" ISBN 978 1 74175 0928

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