The table below illustrates how much money a single person and a couple in Australia need for a comfortable lifestyle after they retire.

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 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 communication between people, 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.