Aussies wealthier, older, fatter and unwed

Fairfax

AUSSIE ALARM: A snapshot of the average Aussie found while they are wealthier, they are increasingly overweight, single gluttons who live in overlarge houses and produce large amounts of trash.

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Australia has become a country of fat, single gluttons who each generate two tonnes of waste a year and live in houses that are unnecessarily large.

A snapshot of Australian life shows that consumption of almost every kind is up, as are divorce rates and life expectancy – which is among the highest in the world.

The Australian Bureau Of Statistics (ABS) report Australian Social Trends 2007 paints a picture of a prosperous, well educated nation, but one which is falling behind in health care and spending an extraordinary amount on mobile phones.

It is also a country in which Aborigines remain severely disadvantaged in almost every area.

The ABS data shows that perhaps the most alarming and obvious changes in the Australian social landscape over the past decade is in the number of obese and overweight adults in the population.

Around 7.4 million, or 54 per cent, of Australian men and women have serious weight problems, up from around two million in 1995.

It is estimated that weight-related illness cost the nation as much as $A21 billion in 2005.

One of the flow-on effects of obesity is diabetes, which is disproportionately high among Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more than three times as likely as non-indigenous people to have diabetes and more than 10 times as likely to have kidney disease.

The ABS figures also suggest the education system is failing Aboriginal children with only 40 per cent staying at school until year 12, compared to a rate of almost 76 per cent among non-indigenous children.

The social trends report points to a continuation of the trend away from marriage, concluding 31 per cent of currently single men and 26 per cent of women will never be married.

And those that do are less likely than ever to stay that way.

One-third of marriages in 2000/02 could be expected to end in divorce, compared with 28 per cent in 1985/87.

The combination of more divorces and less marriages seems to also be having a negative economic impact on more and more homes.

In 2003/04, 49 per cent of one-parent families with children under 15 endured both low income and low wealth, compared with 11 per cent of two-parent families with children of the same age.

One social measure that has improved is the national fertility rate which has steadily increased since 2001 to stand at 1.81 babies per woman in 2005.

Women are also remaining in the workforce in increasing numbers, the participation rate up from 74 per cent in 1990 to 76 per cent in 2005 for people aged 15-64 years.

In conjunction, perhaps not surprisingly, with the rise in the weight of the population is the leap in consumption, which in turn is linked to a steady rise in average incomes.

Real net national disposable income per capita – purchasing power – has risen by 50 per cent since 1991-92, while real net national worth – national wealth – has risen from around $A215,000 per person in 1992 to more than $A236,000 in 2006.

At a time when interest rates and housing affordability are high on the national agenda, the ABS has revealed that thousands are paying off houses that are too big for them.

The average Australian home has more bedrooms on average than 10 years ago, a trend which is at odds with the shrinking size of families.

The ABS found that between 1994 and 2004, the average number of people per household dropped from 2.7 to 2.5, but the average number of bedrooms had risen from 2.9 to 3.

Couple-only households comprised 26 per cent of the total in 2003-04 and lone persons accounted for 25 per cent, up from 24 per cent and 23 per cent respectively in 1994-95, the report found.

While the social trends report paints a picture of a profligate and excessive population, there is one area where warnings seem to be getting through.

In 1986 Australians spent $A855 a head on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

In 2006 they spent only $A473.