Bigger and bulkier: meet alpha generation

Fairfax

REPLACE YOU: It's the birth of a new generation: Alpha.

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This year marks the start of a new generation: the so-called ''alphas''.

It could be our biggest generation to date, according to the social researcher Mark McCrindle, if the trend of breeding in record numbers continues.

The alphas' parents will predominantly come from generations X and Y and will be the first generation of babies to enjoy the benefits of government-funded paid parental leave. Many of them will come from cashed-up households with two incomes, and parents who have delayed having babies until their 30s.

The alphas will be the first full generation born in the new millennium, as some of Generation Z were born in the 1990s.The last of the alphas will be born in 2024. In 2050, when the eldest alphas turn 40, the Australian population is predicted to reach 35 million.

The head of demographics at the Australian National University, Peter McDonald, speaks of the ''echo effect'', which occurs when there is a larger population that will trigger another baby boom because there are more people to have babies.

However, Mr McCrindle predicts one in three alpha females will not have children.

Professor McDonald says bigger generations generally face greater competition in the labour force but with the skills shortage this is less of an issue.

Alphas are expected to have many career opportunities.

They will be growing up at a time when the ageing population hits its peak and older people are leaving the workforce. They may be the most job-fickle generation.

But with the population ageing, the challenge of working out how best to care for the elderly in the long term - and paying for it - may fall on the alphas.

''The alphas will be making the decisions about what to do with our ageing population,'' Mr McCrindle says.

With new technology sure to be at their disposal come the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and with it obesity. The director of the centre for health economics at Monash University, Professor Bruce Hollingsworth, says the consequences of obesity will be more chronic illness. Schools should play a role in giving children a healthy start, he says.

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