Healthy ageing can involve both physical health and social and mental wellbeing. People’s education and skill levels can help maintain mental activity and cognitive functioning in older age. They also impact a person’s life course: the circumstances associated with higher education in mid-life, for example, can continue to offer a protective element into older age. This may be through health literacy and healthy behaviours, or through the employment opportunities and higher incomes associated with higher levels of education (for more information, see Employment and skills and Income and finances).
Older Australians (aged 65 and over) are a diverse population. This diversity is also reflected in the life experiences and skills people have accumulated throughout life.
Throughout this page, ‘older people’ refers to people aged 65 and over. Where this definition does not apply, the age group in focus is specified. The ‘Older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’ feature article defines older people as aged 50 and over. This definition does not apply to this page, with Indigenous Australians aged 50–64 not included in the information presented.
Highest level of educational attainment
In 2016, almost half (47%) of older Australians had a highest educational qualification of year 12 (or equivalent) or below, while 1 in 5 (19%) had completed a certificate or diploma-level qualification and 1 in 8 (12%) a bachelor degree or higher (ABS 2016).
While the percentage of older Australians whose highest level of educational attainment was Year 12 or below was somewhat similar across age groups, the percentages with higher levels of education varied with age. Generally, those in the younger age groups were more likely to have a qualification at certificate, diploma or degree level than those in the older age groups (Figure 8.1).