Marriage losing popularity in Australia

Marriage is losing its appeal among Australians, according to the latest census from the antipodean country.

The results of the 2006 Australian census, released today (Wednesday), reveal that the number of people aged 15 or older who are married has decreased in the last decade, from 53.3 per cent to 49.6 per cent. It also found that approximately 4.6 million Australians aged 20 or more are single, while the number of people who live alone has risen from 1.4 million to 1.8 million.

As federal treasurer Peter Costello noted, this is the lowest marriage figure for Australia in the last 100 years. Commenting on the findings, he said: "For the first time since 1911 the number of people who are married has slipped below 50 per cent."

These latest figures also show that a baby boom occurred in 2006 with the highest number of births since 1971, which Mr Costello said would help boost the population and provide Australia with a more substantial workforce in the future.

"This baby boom of recent years would help rebalance our demographic profile and begin the task of setting us up to address the ageing of population," he added.