Numbers will fall unless immigration levels are maintained
The population of Australia will fall, even as life expectancy increases, unless immigration levels are maintained, the country's Bureau of Statistics has forecast.
In the bureau's lowest projection, an estimated 18.9 million people would live in Australia by the end of the century, compared with 19.7 million now.
But if net migration remained at about 130,000, the population could grow to just under 38 million, the study suggests.
Either way, there is comforting news for children who are born in Australia later this century.
If medical technology and care improve at the same rate as the past 30 years, babies who are born in 2050 will live about 15 years longer than those who are born today.
The present life expectancy for men is 77 but those who enter the world in the middle of the century can expect to live to 92.2.
