The Importance of Demography and Demographic Change - update

Note to readers: this is a stocktake post that is updated from time to time.

Last November we repeated an earlier story I had written on the importance of demographic change to Australia.

Issues associated with demography and demographic change continue as an important topic in Group discussions because of their importance to so many aspects of life and practice. For that reason, this post provides an update on main posts on the topic across several blogs.

The blog demography.matters continues to be a good international entry point to discussions on demographic issues. Like this blog, the demography matters writers have experienced some difficulty recently in keeping the blog up to date, but it remains a valuable resource.

An annotated list of some of the posts I have written on demography and demographic change follows in chronological order.

12 October 12, 2006: Demography, Universities and the Trades in Australia. This and the following post on 30 October 2006, Demography, Universities and the Trades in Australia - a postscript, discuss the impact of demographic change on numbers entering university and the trades and the links to the public policy and skill shortages.

31 October 2006: People Management in Professional Services- the Demographic Time Bomb looks at the impact of demographic change on the professions.

8 November 2006: Impact of Demographic Change in Australia provides an introduction to some of the issues associated with demographic change from an Australian perspective.

On 14 November 2006 I began a series of posts examining the NSW State Government's new ten year plan from a New England perspective. Assumptions about demography are central to the plan.

In NSW Ten Year Plan - New England's Needs I set out my perceptions of the needs the plan might meet. This post includes supporting demographic data. My next post, Does the NSW Ten Year Plan Meet New England's Needs?, looked at the structure and objectives of the plan against the needs as I saw them. My conclusions were not positive. This was followed by a concluding post, NSW Ten Year Plan and New England - Conclusions, drawing the analysis together.

5 December 2006: Demographic Change - a note on Germany looks in a preliminary way at one aspect of the relationship in Germany between demographic and structural change.

7 December 2006: Australia's Population - June 2006 outlines the latest population statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

21 December 2006: Australia's Aborigines - A Note on Demography looks in a preliminary way at the demography of Australia's indigenous peoples.

26 December 2006: Australian Migration Statistics 2005-2006 looks at the latest Australian migration statistics.

2 January 2007: Africa, Demography and Productivity Change - a miscellany looks at African population issues.

3 January 2007: Australian historical population data provides a link to Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates of the Australian population since 1788.

On 18 January 2007 in Sydney Government releases draft Mid-North Coast strategy I reported the release of the the Government's strategy for this area as defined by them. Assumptions about population growth are central to this strategy. I followed this with a post on 23 January, Sydney Government's Coastal Planning Strategies, looking at the coastal strategies as a whole. I was again very critical of the demographic assumptions.

In Personal Reflections 26 January 2007, I mused further on this topic, following this up on 28 January 2007 in Demographic Change in NSW - the future with a further examination of the realism of the assumptions underlying the population projections.

On 7 March 2007 in NSW's Aboriginal Population I provided some data on the regional distribution of Aboriginal people. On 8 March 2007 in Aborigines and the Development of Public Policy - a Methodological Note I looked at data problems. Then on 9 March in Australia's Aborigines - another demographic note I provided some more demographic data on the Aborigines.

3 April 2007: Australia's Aging Population - Treasurer Costello releases second Intergenerational Report provides links to material on Australia's aging population released by the Federal Government.

28 June 2007: Mr Howard, Mr Brough and Australia's Aborigines - 3 includes statistical data on both the Aborigines and various national groups within Australia. This post followed and part corrected the data in Mr Howard, Mr Brough and Australia's Aborigines - 2 (24 June 2007).

6 July 2007: Regional Variation and Australia's Aborigines discusses the distribution of Aboriginal people across NSW as shown by the latest census data.

On 5 August 2007 in Sydney's Sluggish Population Growth, I commented on Sydney's growth compared to the other capital cities, querying again the Sydney Government's planning assumptions.

7 August 2007: Pacific Perspective - Pasifika and New Zealand's Future discusses demographic change in New Zealand.

On 13 August 2007 in US Market for New Law Graduates I discussed, among other things, emigration of younf professionals from Australia.

15 September 2007: Imperial cities, global cities at a time of change looks at the rise of London and the lessons for Australia. Imperial cities, global cities - a postscript (23 September) extends the argument, drawing from comments on the first post.

Australia's Population - March Quarter 2007 Introductory Note (26 September 2007) and Australia's Population - March Quarter 2007 at State Level (28 September 2007) discuss new Australian population data.

28 September 2007: New England Australia Demography - Stocktake of posts as at 28 September 2007 is as the title suggests.

Teasing Neil - but with a serious point (16 October 2007) compares the demography of two very different Australian electorates, Sydney and New England. I followed this on 18 October 2007 with a look at the demography of another electorate - New England's Federal Electorates - Cowper.

20 November 2007: Global Demographic Trends - Introduction began a series on global population trends. This was followed by Global Demographic Trends - A few macro numbers (23 November 2007), Global Demographic Trends - the decline of Europe (26 November), Global Demographic Trends - the rise of Africa (30 November) and then Global Demographic Trends - Asia (8 December 2007).

NSW Demographic Snapshot as at 30 June 2006 - Introduction ( 29 December 2007) outlines the geography of NSW as an entry to a discussion of NSW demography. This was followed on 30 December by NSW Demographic Snapshot as at 30 June 2006 - fastest growing councils 1.

3 February 2008: Report of the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board, year ended 30 June 1940 includes demographic data on NSW's Aboriginal population in 1940.

20 February 2008: Australian Short Term Visitor Arrivals - January 2008 discusses newly released statistics on the country of origin of Australia's short term visitors.