How Many Australian Centenarians?
It needs to be stated at the outset that there are no exact figures on the number of centenarians in Australia. Apart from age-validation problems, caused by age-exaggeration or age-misreporting, which are important issues in determining the number of true centenarians (Vaupel, 1997; Perls, Bochenk, Freeman, Alpert & Silver, 1999), there are technical reasons for this lack of accurate data. While previous census data did record the exact self-reported single year age of all persons surveyed, the 1996 census did not (ABS, 1996). Rather, age was recorded as ‘99 years or more’ for anyone exceeding that age. Since the census does not record other information that can be transformed to current age, such as date of birth, the starting point in determining the number of Australian ‘centenarians’ for 1996 is the age group 99 years or more. In 1996 there were 2,744 people (2,157 females and 587 males) in that age group. Life Table probabilities (Office of the Government Actuary, 1999) for livin
