The table compares the budgets needed for retired singles and couples to live a comfortable lifestyle in Australia.
Overall, the average budget of a retired single person is much lower than that of a couple. In addition, while housing is the biggest expenditure for single retirees, retired couples need more money for leisure activities.
The expenditure for housing of retired single people is $184, which is $10 lower than that of couples. Meanwhile, singles retirees spend $140 on leisure activities, while couples spend $60 more. Regarding healthcare, couples spend $177, which is $50 higher than the expenditure of a single retired person.
In terms of transport, couples and singles need roughly the same amount of money, at $108 and $107 respectively. When it comes to clothing, food, and other things, the figure for an individual is almost half that of a couple. A single person spends $44, $50 and $37 respectively on these categories, while a couple spends $80, $100 and $70. In general, the total amount of money spent by an individual is $684, whereas the figure for a couple is $931.
In contrast, the majority of people participating in the survey expected to see improvements in the communication between people, at 64%, while only 36% of them thought the opposite. Meanwhile, opinions on food quality were divided almost equally with just over half the survey participants believing that things would improve, and 49% thinking the opposite.