How life has changed for people your age

Updated

What's different about your life, compared to someone who was your age in the 1980s?

Big hair, fluoro colours, Rubik's cubes and Walkmans — the '80s feel like another country. And in some ways, they are.

How we are educated, work, marry, have families, spend money and look after our health have fundamentally changed since then.

Take a look at how some of those changes have affected people at different stages of their lives.

Children

Babies have a much higher chance of surviving their first years of life now than in the '80s and that's partly due to big drops in conditions like sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Kids in the '80s were more likely to be looked after in the home and 21st-century parents spend more money on childcare now.

Australia was still becoming accustomed to working mothers in 1981. "Children grow fat while mothers work," one headline screamed.

The problem of obesity in kids has only gotten worse, not better, since then.

Teenagers

Teenagers in the '80s weren't keen on staying at school and reported being 'fed up' with it and wanting their own money.

Australia had a 'youth job crisis' in 1981, according to the government. But it's actually harder to find full-time jobs now if you're a teenager. Unemployment in this group peaked at 34 per cent in 1992.

There are now also more teens and 20-somethings who want more hours of work, meaning they are 'under-employed'.

More worrying for '80s teens was the 'horrific' road toll in their age group, with drink-driving blamed.

People in their 20s

'20: too young to get married?' the Sydney Morning Herald asked in 1981. It wasn't for Lady Diana Spencer, who at 19, married Prince Charles that year.

But these days, it's definitely too young for most Australians to get married.

Later marrying age, and the cost of housing, means more 20-somethings still live at home now.

The inflation rate was six times higher in 1981 and was blamed for students being 'caught in a poverty slide', and that was without escalating 21st-century rents to deal with.

In the same time period, the dole has only gone up slightly.

People in their 30s

Couples living in de facto relationships were not granted the same financial and property rights as married couples until 1985.

The way 30-somethings deal with their relationships has been transformed since then.

As women have become more educated, they are also having children later.

Australians in their 30s find it hard to get into the property market — the median house price has leapt since 1981.

And affordability — mortgage payments as a percentage of household income — peaked at 38 per cent in 1989.

Thirty-somethings are far less likely to own their home now, but it's not because they are spending all their money on having a good time.

People in their 40s

More 40-something women have university educations now and not surprisingly, large families are becoming much more unusual.

In 1981, newspapers were warning women about 'when that extra pay upsets the marriage'. These days, marriage doesn't mean staying out of the workforce.

'Life is tougher for the average family', said the headlines in 1981.

Since then, household incomes and spending have both climbed.

Eighteen per cent of household spending now goes to housing, up from 9 per cent in 1984.

People in their 50s

In 1981, the manufacturing industry was the biggest employer of men in their 50s, though it had already been declining for a decade. That trend hasn't stopped.

Nor has the decline in trade union membership.

Australians in their 50s have cut back on at least some unhealthy habits since the 1980s.

Australians were being warned in 1985 that anger caused heart attacks. But it's actually been healthier living that has contributed to a big reduction in heart disease and strokes around the age of 50.

But being overweight is now the norm.

In 1984, the government launched an advertising campaign to 'mend marriages'. Divorce rates are higher now for over-40s, but lower for younger people.

People in their 60s

The good news for today's 60-somethings is they can expect to live longer than people who were the same age in the 1980s, partly due to a massive reduction in heart attacks.

That might be partly related to a big drop in smoking rates.

It might be just as well they're living longer, because people in their 60s are less likely to be retired now.

At the start of the 1980s, very few people in their 60s had a university education. But more people were earning big money without one.

People aged 70 and older

Retirees have more income these days than in the 1980s, when only half of all employees had superannuation coverage.

Household spending on heating and electricity has gone up a bit since the '80s, but spending on health has doubled.

Pensioners have more money in real terms compared to the '80s.

Life expectancy has also climbed significantly.

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Topics: human-interest, australia

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