3311.4 - Demography, South Australia, 1995  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 11/06/1997   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

MEDIA RELEASE

June 11, 1997
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
74/97
South Australians - living longer

South Australia's population is ageing, according to the latest demographic statistics released today by The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The report, Demography SA, 1995 (Catalogue No. 3311.4), says that in line with the national trend, South Australians are living longer and the median age of death has risen to 74.3 per cent for males and 80.7 per cent for females.

The report is based on registrations of births, deaths, marriages and divorces in 1995, and includes the following points:

  • In 1995 there were 19,336 births registered in South Australia, a drop of 2.3 per cent in ten years, although the total fertility rate in South Australia has remained steady over the last ten years at 1.7 children per woman.
  • Ex-nuptial births represented 27.4 per cent of all births registered in South Australia compared with only 14.5 per cent in 1985 (2,865).
  • Men live an average of three years longer and women 2.4 years longer than they did ten years ago (to 74.3 and 80.7 respectively).
  • Deaths in 1995 increased by 6.9 per cent to 11,218, although the crude death rate fell from 7.7 per 1,000 population to 7.6.
  • The leading causes of death were heart disease (31.1 per cent) and cancer (26.4 per cent).
  • The crude marriage rate of 5.8 per 1,000 population continued the downward trend which commenced in 1972, with 8,547 marriages registered South Australia in 1995.
  • The median age at divorce was 39.9 years for men and 37.2 years for women, similar to the Australian median ages. In South Australia in 1995 there were 4,199 divorces granted.
  • Births to Indigenous mothers have fallen by 17.5 per cent since 1990, although the fertility rate for Indigenous females is still higher than that of the total population (2.346 compared to 1.750).
  • In 1995, the Indigenous males experienced a death rate three times greater than the rate for all South Australian males, while the death rate of Indigenous females was two and a half times greater than the South Australian rate for females.

Details are in Demography SA, 1995 (cat. no. 3311.4) which is available from ABS bookshops.