Australians living longer, working more hours, welfare report says AUSTRALIANS are living longer, its population is ageing more rapidly and working more, but the effort is not always enough to keep many from falling into disadvantage or being able to climb out of it, according to a new report. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare biennial review of how Australians live, released this morning, paints a picture of families doing their best to provide opportunity for children, and elderly and indigenous Australians as the most marginalised. The federal, state and territory governments spent almost $120 billion on welfare in 2010-11, about $90bn of that in cash and almost $37bn of that figure on seniors, in the form of pensions and other payments. AIHW Director and CEO David Kalisch said that Australia's welfare in 2013 highlighted that while our population continued to grow, and many of us enjoyed a very good standard of living, some groups faced social and economic difficulties. "Where we live, our family structure and our levels of education all affect the quality of our lives and how long we can expect to live," Mr Kalisch said. In 2009, 13 per cent of the Australian population was classified as being in relative income poverty and in 2009/10, government pensions and allowances were the main source of income for 1 in 4 households. In 2011, there were 2.2 divorces per thousand people and more than half of Australia's children "usually attended" childcare. But the proportion of young people more generally is declining. People aged 65 and over comprised 8 per cent of the population in 1972 compared with 14 per cent in 2012. Over the same period, the proportion aged under 25 fell from almost half (46 per cent) to one-third (32 per cent) of the population," the report says.