From DINKs to SINKs and now to SPUDs

Sydney, March 12 : A new survey has found that there are more single women than married women in Australia, thus giving rise to the trend of the SPUD or single person urban dwelling.

After trends such as DINKs i.e. dual income, no kids, and SINKs i.e. single income, no kids, the latest fad Down Under is SPUD, which signifies the increase of single, unmarried women.

In a wide-ranging new geo-demographic survey of the country, researchers have discovered that unmarried women now outnumber married women for the first time since World War I.

The Mosaic 2008 analysis showed that 51.4 per cent of women are going for the singles lifestyle in a new phenomenon dubbed "Bridget Jones meets Sex and the City".

The survey also approximates that up to a quarter of women will never have children.

The researchers also revealed that SPUDs form more than 25 per cent of all dwellings in Australia, a figure that is expected to climb over the next 30 years.

"Mosaic 2008 offers us new levels of insight into where Australians live and work, how much they earn and spend, what their family situation is and what they do with their spare time," News.com.au quoted Graham Plant, of research firm Pacific Micromarketing, as saying.

"It draws on richer data sources and drills down further to the household level than any other similar analysis.

"Many of the new trends identified, ask serious questions of businesses and government: for example, what does the rise of the SPUD mean for transport and utility service providers and grocery retailers, not to mention the energy-efficiency of our cities?" Plant added.

Other findings in Mosaic 2008 showed that 50 per cent of all Australians have one parent born overseas, of whom only 14 per cent were born in the UK; Africa, India, Indonesia, Singapore and China are the fastest-growing sources of immigrants; and the proportion of baby boomers aged 65+ is expected to double to 25 per cent of the total Australian population by 2038.

Plant said the Mosaic findings provided governments, private and other sectors with priceless data to better plan for the future.

"In a shifting and fragmenting consumer landscape, all enterprises need to work harder to understand their customers better. Companies should be planning products and services that their customers will want over the next decade, not what they wanted five years ago," he said.

ANI