MIL-Evening Report: Meet the nonagenarians: people in their 90s are Australia’s fastest growing senior age group

Description

When the media discusses ageing, it commonly focuses on people older than 65. But generally, a 65-year-old and a 95-year-old have about as much in common as a 65-year-old and a 35-year-old.

Our population has been ageing for more than a century, picking up momentum in the 1970s. Attention has typically been on the baby boomers, who have started to reach age 65 and beyond.

But the “greatest generation”, those born in the 1920s and aged in their 90s today, have quietly become the fastest growing group of older people in Australia. The rate of people living to their 90s – “nonagenarians” – has grown by 67% in the past decade, much higher than any other ten-year age group over 60.

Subject

Healthing; Ageing