MEDIA RELEASE
December 15, 2008	Embargoed: 11.30 am (AEDT)	118/2008

The number of Australians aged under 5 reached an estimated 1.4 million at 30 June 2008, an increase of 2.8% over the previous 12 months, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This was faster than the overall population increase of 1.7% over the same period.

At the other end of the age span, there were an estimated 3,400 Australian centenarians (people aged 100 years or more) at 30 June 2008, an increase of 540 people or 19% over the previous 12 months.

At 30 June 2008, the proportion of Australia's population who were aged 65 and over was 13.3% up from 10.8% in 1988. Over the same twenty year period, the proportion of people aged 85 and over more than doubled from 0.8% to 1.7% of the population.

The proportion of Australia's working age population (15-64 years) has remained relatively stable over the past twenty years at 67.5% up slightly at 0.7% while the proportion of the population aged 15 and under declined from 22.4% to 19.3%.

Median Ages
The median age (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger) for Australia increased by 5.3 years over the last two decades, up from 31.6 years in 1988 to 36.9 years in 2008.

• Tasmania and South Australia recorded the highest median ages in June 2008 at 39.4 and 39.0 years respectively.
• The Northern Territory recorded the lowest median age at 31.1 years, followed by the Australian Capital Territory at 34.7 years.

Australia's sex ratio (the number of males per 100 females in the population) at 30 June 2008 was 98.9 males per 100 females.

The ABS animated population pyramids for all states, territories and Australia have been updated on the ABS website today.

More details are available in Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, June 2008 (cat. no. 3201.0).