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Legally, Australians are considered adults at 18, but a new report has said that Australians aren’t really adults until they’re 28, and they’re not old until they’re 77.
Modern society has also led to the ‘rise of the individual’, and wealth is no longer defined solely by the ‘great Australian dream’ of homeownership, according to the report by finance company AMP and demographer Bernard Salt.
In 1950 there were only three stages of life: children 0-12 years old, adults 13-60 years old, and the elderly 61-69 years old, which was the average life expectancy at the time.
By 1990, the concept of being a teenager – 13 to 19 – was firmly established, 20 to 64 was the adult bracket and Australians considered themselves older than 65 years.
But in 2023 there are six stages in the average life: childhood (0-12), adolescence (13-28), adulthood (29-55), a ‘lifestyle’ period of 56-64, the retirement era from 65-76, and with old age not normally starting until age 77, Salt said.
Australians consider themselves adults at 18, but a new report says Australians aren’t really adults until they’re 28. Pictured is a young woman between her teens and early adulthood.
The adolescent period includes the additional time spent in education or training for more skilled jobs, while the lifestyle period includes time many spend combining work and play in partial or early retirement.
The study said that while social change usually takes time to take effect, sometimes there are events that produce big changes.
“The introduction of no-fault divorce in 1975 relieved many Australians of the burden of unhappy marriages,” he said.
The retirement guarantee introduced under Paul Keating’s Labor government in 1992 was designed to ensure Australians dignity and a level of independence in retirement.
In 2023, there are six stages in the average life, compared to just three in 1950 (graphic on image)
Demographer Bernard Salt said: “Our grandparents died at 61, 62 in the 1950s and 1960s,” but Australians today live much longer, as the graph shows.
The report goes on to say that one of the most important social changes has been the rise of the individual.
“In a direct comparison between the way Australians live in 2023 with the way we lived 60 years ago in 1963, it is clear that there is now more ‘alone time’ throughout the life cycle.”
The research also found that home ownership rates have fallen from 73 percent in 1966 to 63 percent today.
Salt said people still want to own a home, but the 10 percent drop in the number of people who do own their own home or have a mortgage “gives people the freedom to make other decisions.” .
“To put money into retirement, to build a nest egg and to respond to unforeseen circumstances,” he said.
A new report says Australians now aren’t really old until they’re 77. In the photo, a woman in her 70s.
The introduction of a group of ‘retirees’ in the life cohort stages responds to growing concerns among Australians about what they want to do after work, Mr Salt said.
“Our grandparents died at 61, 62 years old in the 1950s and 1960s,” he said.
‘The idea of retirement planning was not a problem because you died before you qualified for the age pension at 65.
“So we’re dealing with new concepts that are moving; there’s no frame of reference that goes back 50 years.”
With increased life expectancy due to healthier lifestyles and modern medicine, Salt said the way societies and individuals prepare for and finance retirement is “relatively new.”
“So if policymakers are struggling to deal with it, it may be because they haven’t appreciated its importance, but also because there is no corporate memory.”
The demographer said Australians’ focus on home ownership in the mid-20th century brought “a sense of security” to war-returning diggers who had grown up during the Great Depression.
‘Getting married, having children, buying a house, having a stable job were values that shaped the times
“While Australians today have a range of goals that include home ownership, it also includes seeking choices such as how and where we work, how and when we form relationships and how we choose to live our lives,” he said.
The research found that home ownership rates have fallen from a high of 73 percent in 1966 to 63 percent today (pictured)
But Salt said that while many things have changed drastically since the 1960s, “what hasn’t changed is the value of health, of personal relationships, of family, of the ideal of providing for children, of helping others grandchildren”.
‘These things are eternal. they are human. This is why we seek security through wealth and why we have sought these things in the past.
“Wealth, however great or modest, allows us to live the life we want to live, to benefit those we love, to support those we care about, both now and in the future.
“That’s what it means to be ‘rich,'” he said.