Life starts at 40 in Australia's oldest capital

Hobart residents have the highest median age of any Australian capital city while Darwin has the youngest, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Hobart's median age (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger) was 39.8 years at June 2017, making it once again Australia's oldest capital, more than a year older than nearest rival Adelaide (38.7 years). With a median age of 33.6 years, Darwin was again the youngest capital, more than a year younger than residents in the Australian Capital Territory (35.0).

"The data indicates that popular coastal retirement destinations tended to drag up the median age," ABS Director of Demography Anthony Grubb said. "These areas included Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest (62.4 years) and Tuncurry (60.8) in New South Wales, and Bribie Island (59.6) in Queensland."

"Conversely, where students or military personnel congregated, the median ages were low. For example in the ACT, the suburb of Acton has a large number of university students and the median age is 21.3 years. Duntroon, which is also in the ACT, has a concentration of military personnel and a median age of 21.9 years."

The data, contained in Regional Population by Age and Sex, also showed that Adelaide once again had the lowest ratio of males to females of all capital cities, with 96.7 males for every 100 females, followed by Melbourne at 97.7. Darwin was again the only capital with more males than females, with 111.5 males per 100 females.

Oldest and youngest populations in each state/territory(a), June 2017

(a) Excludes areas with population less than 1,000.