Knowing who, where, and how many of us there are is a powerful force that helps us understand the way we live now and, as Liz Allen powerfully shows, allows us to create a better future.

We know what the population of Australia is. We know where these people live and where they were born. We know how many babies they are likely to have. We know what their life expectancy is. We know how educated they are and whether they’re working. With energy and passion, demographer Liz Allen explains what this all means and how we can use this information to make Australia better.

Bold and fearless, this book does more than help you find your inner statistician. It helps us to understand the way we live now and how we might shape our future. Looking beyond births, deaths and marriages, Liz Allen takes apart inequality, migration, tax, home ownership. She shares her own ‘life course’. And fearlessly, she dissects how the word ‘population’ became so charged, daring to ask what Australia might look like in 20 years if we had zero migration.

We know that demography shapes future possibilities. This book gives demography a makeover to create a better future for us.