The former Treasurer for Australia, Peter Costello, once said that every Australian family needed to have three babies if the economy was to continue growing. One for him, one for her, and one for the country.
However, the fertility rate is trending down, as highlighted in the intergenerational report released this week. The intergenerational report examines long-term economic and budget trends. This week's report is the first of five published since 2002 to revise Australia's long-term population growth projection downward.
The 2015 intergenerational report assumed a rate of 1.9 babies per woman, but that has been cut to 1.6 babies per woman. Fertility in Australia is now below the "replacement rate" of 2.1 - the level required to keep the population size steady since the late 1970s.
Because migrants are, on average, younger than the existing Australian population, migration reduces the average age of the population and slows the rate of population ageing. As a result, Australia's population growth will become increasingly reliant on overseas migration over the next 40 years.
For the past decade, overseas migration has accounted for around sixty per cent of the annual increase in Australia's population. It is forecast that net overseas migration will need to recover post-pandemic to 235,000 people per year by 2024-25 and remain at that level in the coming decades.
However, the fertility rate is trending down, as highlighted in the intergenerational report released this week. The intergenerational report examines long-term economic and budget trends. This week's report is the first of five published since 2002 to revise Australia's long-term population growth projection downward.
The 2015 intergenerational report assumed a rate of 1.9 babies per woman, but that has been cut to 1.6 babies per woman. Fertility in Australia is now below the "replacement rate" of 2.1 - the level required to keep the population size steady since the late 1970s.
Because migrants are, on average, younger than the existing Australian population, migration reduces the average age of the population and slows the rate of population ageing. As a result, Australia's population growth will become increasingly reliant on overseas migration over the next 40 years.
For the past decade, overseas migration has accounted for around sixty per cent of the annual increase in Australia's population. It is forecast that net overseas migration will need to recover post-pandemic to 235,000 people per year by 2024-25 and remain at that level in the coming decades.