FED:How Australia's face is changing

AAP General News (Australia)
01-24-2011
FED:How Australia's face is changing

By Nick Perry

SYDNEY, Jan 24 AAP - The "average" Aussie is changing, and by 2020 we'll barely recognise
ourselves.

The iconic pastime of watching sport is under threat from the internet, the era of
the quarter-acre block is dead, and more of us are trading our leisure time for hours
in the office, a new report says.

The findings, released on Monday by business information analysts IbisWorld, looked
at population trends, migration, working hours, employment and leisure activities - taking
a stab at where we could be in around a decade.

Property price hikes coupled with increasing population density in the major cities
have brought the end of the suburban home among the gum trees, with its clothesline out
the back and veranda out the front.

Fewer Aussies own their homes outright, and more people are ditching backyards for
balconies, with apartment sales on the rise.

More people will elect to rent as they are priced out of the property market.

Forecasts for low unemployment and a longer working hours are expected to cut into
Australians' free time by 2020.

Aussies still love their sport, with the number attending events jumping to 7.6 million
in 2009-2010.

AFL matches still draw the biggest crowds of any sport, but netball and soccer - not
cricket or rugby - are the most popular sports we play.

But people no longer spend so much free time outdoors, with the video game industry
expected to double its annual revenue of $3.6 billion over the next decade.

Traditionally the realm of male teenagers, video games have undergone a dramatic shift,
with the average age of the Australian gamer now estimated at 30, while 45 per cent of
all game consumers are female.

Just about every Aussie is jumping online as computer literacy and internet speeds
increase, with predictions online shopping could account for up to 10 per cent of Australia's
overall retail spending by 2020.

Australia is also getting bigger by the day. The current population of 22.5 million
is expected to reach 25.9 million by 2020, with 300,000 babies born in 2009-2010 alone.

"Rising incomes and household wealth, coupled with low unemployment, good job security
and government policy such as the baby bonus and childcare rebates have greatly contributed
to the boom in births in the last five years," said IbisWorld general manager Robert Bryant.

Still, immigration is the key factor driving population growth and by 2020 it will
add about two million people to Australia's population.

"(With) the strength of the Australian economy compared to other developed nations
and university funding under pressure, we expect the government to come under increasing
pressure to loosen immigration rules," Mr Bryant said.

People born in the UK and New Zealand are the next biggest contributors to Australia's
population, although more than 75 per cent of Australians are born here, the study said.

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