Australia’s baby bust: what happens when a nation stops replacing itself?
4/2/202630 min
Australia’s birth rate is collapsing, heading for a record low next year, well below the level needed for the population to replace itself.
Fewer couples, fewer kids, and a world where ageing societies reshape everything from innovation to taxes. Why is this happening everywhere at once, and what does it mean for your future?
Guests:
Viva Hammer, ANU population researcher and tax expert
Myriam Robin, AFR senior writer
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Peter Martin· Host0:36
Australia might soon be unable to replace itself. As far back as records go, Australia's fertility rate was comfortably above the level needed for births to replace deaths. In the 1960s, we had three births per Australian woman. Then it collapsed, and in the past 10 years it's collapsed a good deal more. If we're to believe the latest figures, and there's some doubt, our fertility rate is now just 1.48, a good deal less than the 2.1 babies per woman thought necessary to sustain the population. China's is one. Korea's is a hard to fathom 0.75. It means the entire world's population is on track to peak and then start falling. Why is it happening? Why