random Aussie stats

February 2, 2010 on 8:47 pm | In melbourne | No Comments

In the last edition of 2009, The Week magazine had a retrospective of aussie statistics that I found interesting.

An aussie woman’s life expectancy is 84. Men = 80. Which made me wonder what it is with other countries – especially those with national healthcare. The chart below doesn’t differenciate between genders but out of the 6 countries I compared, the states has the lowest average – of 78.

Aussies give less to charity (though I’m sure this would be different after Haiti & Tsunami figures). A 2005 report (Giving Australia) says the avg total annual personal donation was $424. GDP wise, americans give 1.6% of GDP & Aussies .68%.

There’s not the constant ‘church & state separation’ here because church really doesn’t enter into it. I really enjoy not having to hear the constant religion din. The 2006 census showed the majority of people (64%) said they were christians but 19% ticked the non-believer choice. The 2001 census only had 16% of non-believers. Go non believers!!!! BTW, in 1911, 96% of all aussies said they were christian.

More than $18 BILLION is spent per year on gambling.

After iron ore & coal, overseas students/education is the 3rd largest cash machine for the country. Not at all surprising but I didn’t realise that AU has the highest percentage of overseas students among all OECD/developed countries. ONE TENTH OF THE ENTIRE WORLD MARKET. No one should be wondering why politicians are making trips to India to smooth things over after multiple Indian students have been bashed or killed. More surprising is why they haven’t been doing more.

and lastly….

AU has the 2nd highest proportion of foreign born people – 30% (Israel is #1 but there wasn’t a % noted). Add in all those foreign students & it’s surprising the country isn’t more diverse & welcoming to migrants. Instead they’re pissy about being overtaken by the 158,021 new immigrants that arrived last year. The blurb says that breaks down into 21% from New Zealand, 14% from UK & 20% from China & India (combined).