South Australia's ageing population and its increasingly multicultural nature

Abstract

<jats:p> <jats:bold>Introduction</jats:bold>: In South Australia there has been a massive change in the background of the older population.</jats:p><jats:p> <jats:bold>Objective:</jats:bold> The paper analyses recent changes in the growth and distribution of the ethnic aged population in South Australia.</jats:p><jats:p> <jats:bold>Method:</jats:bold> The paper utilises the results of the 1996 Australian Census of Population and Housing.</jats:p><jats:p> <jats:bold>Results:</jats:bold>Whereas in 1971, 19.7 percent of the State's population aged 65 years and over were overseas‐born, this applied to 34 percent in 1996. Moreover, this share will continue to increase over the next decade. The proportion who were born in non‐English‐speaking countries has increased from 5.1 to 22.1 percent. Each of the major birthplace groups among the ethnic aged has a distinctive spatial distribution.</jats:p><jats:p> <jats:bold>Conclusion:</jats:bold> This presents a major challenge to policy makers and service providers since the overseas‐born groups have some characteristics which mean that their needs for services are somewhat different to those of the Anglo‐Celtic majority.</jats:p>