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In this section you will find detailed information, including national overviews and state and regional level assessments, from the 2000-2002 National Land and Water Resources Audit theme assessments.
Median Age of Farmers And Farm Managers
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- comparisons between urban and rural populations show the average age of rural Australians overall (including farmers) is higher than urban Australians, and is increasing faster
- changes in median or average ages are related to population shifts away from inland Australia towards major cities and the coast, shifts particularly pronounced among 15-24 year-olds
- the increasing age of farmers raises concerns that younger Australians are not entering farming at a high enough rate to replace older farmers or farm managers as they reach normal retirement age
- ABARE data indicate that in 1997-98, the average age of broadacre farmers, including pastoralists, was approximately 54 years, and that they are older than other types of farmers on average
- in 1996, overall median age of farmers and farm managers was 48 years; the map indicates median ages are highest in remote north-western Australia (the Kimberley and Pilbara); parts of south-eastern Western Australia; southern and north-eastern Northern Territory and adjoining western Queensland; and scattered coastal or near-coastal areas in the eastern states
- the median age of farmers and farm managers was considerably higher than 48 years in extensive areas of the pastoral uplands of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, New South Wales and south eastern Queensland
- farmers generally were considerably younger in central cropping and sheep areas of Western Australia, except in the Great Southern and south west coastal areas and were younger in pastoral South Australia and south west Queensland
- while populations are small in some Statistical Local Areas, older median ages in the northern and western parts of the inland are associated mainly with pastoral properties (cattle producers), and suggest pastoralists' children are not taking over properties as their parents reach retirement age
Data Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 1996 Population and Housing Census. Data relates to members of the population who classified themselves as having an occupation of 'Farmer' or 'Farm Manager'.
Caveats:
figures reported are a median farmer age for each SLA; data are for self described Farmer/Farm Managers and vary from that used to describe Farm under the Agricultural Census
Related Indicators
Change in median age of farmers and farm managers, 1991-1996 - Map 2.
Further information
- "Framework and Review of Capacity and Motivation for Change to Sustainable Management Practices" by D. Mark Fenton, Colin MacGregor and John Cary (PDF - 410 KB)
- *"Human and social aspects capacity to change to sustainable management practices" by John Cary, Neil Barr, Heather Aslin, Trevor Webb and Shannon Kelson (PDF - 707 KB)
* This report does not contain maps and needs to be read in conjunction with:
- "Social Atlas for sustainable management - a social and economic database" by John Cary, Shannon Kelson and Heather Aslin. (PDF - 302 KB)
- Image files for the "Social Atlas for sustainable management - a social and economic database" report by John Cary, Shannon Kelson and Heather Aslin (Zip - 7.8 MB)
- "Structural change in Australian agriculture: implications for natural resource management" by Neil Barr (PDF - 1.8 MB)
- "Structural change in Australian agriculture: implications for natural resource management - APPENDICES" by Neil Barr (PDF - 4.3 MB)
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