Quick facts

Population

The age distribution of the female population is expected to change markedly over the next 50 years.

The greatest change will occur in the oldest age groups. By 2051, it is projected that 46 percent of the female population will be aged 50 and over, compared with 29 percent in 2004, while the proportion of the female population that is 65 years and over is expected to more than double from 13 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2051.

Women typically live longer than men, so most people in older age groups are women. In 2005 more than half of older people aged 65–74 were women, whereas 6 in 10 people aged 75–84 and 7 in 10 people aged over 85 were women.

The older population is also less ethnically diverse than the total population. In 2001 more than 90 in 100 older people (65 years or older) were European, with just 4 in 100 Mäori, 2 in 100 Pacific peoples, and 2 in 100 Asian peoples.

About 3 in 100 older people were born overseas.

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Geographical distribution

In 1996 older people were less likely than the total population to live in rural areas.

Seven in 10 of the older population lived in large urban areas, compared with 2 in 10 in smaller urban areas and 1 in 10 in rural areas. Older Mäori are more likely to live in rural areas than other older people.

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Language

In 2001 most older people could speak English, while almost 1 in 10 could speak two or more languages. After English, the most commonly spoken languages among older people are Mäori, Dutch, French, German, Samoan and Cantonese.

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Families and households

In 2001 most people aged over 65 lived in their own homes, either alone or with a partner. Three-quarters of older people living alone were women while men were more likely than women to live with a partner. Just over half of all older people were married. Although older people living in de facto relationships make up a very small proportion of the older population, the number trebled in the decade to 2001.

Fewer than 1 in 5 older people lived with children or other relatives.

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Paid work

Since the eligibility age for retirement income support began rising in 1992, the number and proportion of older women, and older people generally, working in their early 60s has increased dramatically. Between 1992 and 2004, the proportion of women aged 60–64 working full time more trebled to 3 in 10 compared with almost 6 in 10 men.

The number of part-time workers has also risen by a similar rate, however fewer men work part-time than women.

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Income

The majority of women aged 65 years and over are dependent on government superannuation for their income.

Older men are almost twice as likely as older women to receive income from a private superannuation scheme.

Although withdrawal from the labour force by both men and women around this age means that there is little variance in income levels, men still receive slightly higher annual median incomes than women (about $800 more per year).

Significant differences exist between women from different ethnic groups. In 2001, the median annual income for Asian women at $8,200 was considerably lower than European ($12,900), Mäori ($11,600) or Pacific women ($10,000). This may be explained by European women taking up superannuation at a higher rate.

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Unpaid work

A large proportion of older women are involved in unpaid work, both in the home and in the community.

Women do considerably more unpaid work than men across all age groups. Women do their greatest amount of unpaid work when establishing families around the ages of 25–44, while men do their greatest amount of unpaid work when aged over 65

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Education

Few of the current generation of older people have formal educational qualifications, but this will change as younger generations with higher proportions of tertiary graduates age.

Differences in educational qualifications between older women and older men are also likely to narrow.

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Health

People are living longer and healthier, but health is the primary concern of older people because people need more health services as they age. People aged over 65 make up about a tenth of the total population and use about a third of total health expenditure. Older people also have higher rates of disability than younger people.

Women generally live longer than men, so they are the major recipients of aged care health services, but health and life expectancy varies widely among women from different ethnic groups.

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Life expectancy

In 2002 women’s life expectancy at birth was just over 81 years, compared with just over 76 years for men.

Because women have a longer life expectancy than men, they make up the majority of the older population. In 2001 women accounted for 56 percent of all people aged 65 and over, with the proportion increasing with age. Women aged 85 and over outnumbered their male counterparts by more than two to one.

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Housing

Three-quarters of older people own their own home, compared with about half of adults under 65 years. This proportion has declined in recent years, mainly because more older people have moved into residential care or transferred homes to a family trust.

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Violence against older women

Women made up two-thirds of 1,546 established cases of elder abuse and/or neglect referred to Age Concern services between 1998 and 2001. 

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