Deaths in Australia

Looking at how many people die and what caused their death can provide vital information about the health of a population. Examining patterns and trends in deaths can help explain differences and changes in the health of a population, contribute to the evaluation of health strategies and interventions, and guide planning and policy-making.

In 2022, there were 190,939 deaths registered in Australia (99,924 males; 91,015 females). Less than 1% of all deaths in Australia in 2022 occurred among children aged 0­–4 years, while over two-thirds (68%) were among people aged 75 and over.

Leading causes of death by sex and age

In 2022, the leading cause of death for males was coronary heart disease, accounting for 11,303 (11%) deaths, followed by dementia including Alzheimer’s disease (Figure 1). For females, dementia including Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause of death, accounting for 10,976 (12%) deaths, followed by coronary heart disease.

Other diseases among the 5 leading causes of deaths for males and females were: COVID-19, lung cancer, and cerebrovascular disease (which includes stroke).

Figure 1: Leading underlying causes of death in Australia, by sex, 2022

As well as differences by sex, the leading causes of death vary by age (Figure 2). Among infants, most deaths in 2022 were due to perinatal and congenital conditions. Land transport accidents were the most common cause of death among children aged 1–14. Suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged 15–44.

Chronic diseases caused most deaths among people aged 45 and over. Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death for males aged 45 and over. Cancers (such as breast and lung) were the leading causes of death for females aged 45–74, and for those aged 75 and over it was dementia including Alzheimer’s.

For more information, see Leading causes of death.

Figure 2: Leading underlying causes of death in Australia, by age group and sex, 2022

Notes

1. ‘Other ill-defined causes’ include the following codes: Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (ICD-10 codes R00–R99, excluding R95: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)); Respiratory failure of newborn (P28.5); Respiratory failure, unspecified (J96.9). AIHW General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books are available for selected leading causes of death.

2. Heart failure refers to ‘Heart failure and complications and ill-defined heart disease (I50–I51)’.

3. There were no suicide deaths in children under 5. The number of deaths of children attributed to suicide can be influenced by coronial reporting practices, see Deaths due to intentional self-harm (suicide): Coding of suicide in the Methodology of Causes of Death, Australia, ABS.

Deaths due to COVID-19

In 2022, there were 9,859 deaths due to COVID-19 registered in Australia. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 increased with increasing age. More than half occurred among those aged 85 and over (Figure 3). See COVID-19 deaths.

Males had higher numbers of COVID-19 deaths than females for most age groups. The death rate for males aged 70–79 was twice that of females in the same age groups.

Figure 3: Number of deaths and age-specific rates (per 100,000 population) in Australia due to COVID-19, by age and sex, 2022

For the latest statistics on deaths due to COVID-19, see ABS reports Provisional Mortality Statistics and ‘Chapter 1 The impact of a new disease: COVID-19 from 2020, 2021 and into 2022’ in Australia’s health 2022: data insights.

Trends in deaths over time

In Australia, death rates have declined since at least the early 1900s. Between 1907 and 2022, the crude death rate decreased by 32%. When accounting for changes in the population age structure over this period, the age-standardised death rate fell by 73%.

This was largely driven by the decline of infant and child deaths during this period; from 2,412 deaths per 100,000 children under 5 in 1907 to 75 per 100,000 in 2022 (decrease of 97%).

There has been a transition from infectious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis which caused the most deaths in the early 1900s, to cardiovascular diseases and cancers causing the most deaths from the 1930s.

See also ‘Chapter 4 Changing patterns of mortality in Australia since 1900’ in Australia’s health 2022: data insights.

With the exception of the emergence of COVID-19, the 10 leading causes of death have generally remained the same throughout the last decade, albeit with different rankings (Figure 4). COVID-19 entered the top 10 leading causes of death in 2022 for the first time and was the 3^rd and 4^th leading cause of death for males and females respectively.

When considering the leading causes across the last decade:

• Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death for males in both 2012 and 2022.
• Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease has replaced coronary heart disease as the leading cause of death for females.
• Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease increased in ranking for both males and females.
• Deaths due to cancer (lung, prostate, and colorectal) decreased in ranking for males.
• Deaths due to cancer (lung, breast, and colorectal) decreased in ranking for females.

For more information, see Trends in deaths.

Figure 4: Change in disease ranking and the proportion of all deaths for the leading 10 underlying causes of death in Australia, by sex, between 2012 and 2022

Variation in deaths between population groups

First Nations people

In the period 2018–2022:

• the crude death rate for First Nations people was 488 deaths per 100,000 population
• the age-standardised death rate for First Nations males was 1.3 times that of First Nations females (1,109 and 884 deaths per 100,000 population)
• the age-standardised death rate among First Nations people was 1.9 times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians (990 and 534 deaths per 100,000 population respectively)
• The 3 leading causes of death for First Nations people were coronary heart disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), whereas for non-Indigenous Australians they were coronary heart disease, dementia including Alzheimer’s disease, and cerebrovascular disease (Figure 5).

See Health and wellbeing of First Nations people.

Figure 5: Leading underlying causes of death in Australia, by Indigenous status and sex, 2018–2022

Remoteness areas

Rates of death and leading causes of death differ between the areas where people live. When looking at the difference in what causes death by where people live, in 2018–2022:

• crude death rates were highest in Inner regional areas (853 deaths per 100,000) and lowest in Very remote areas (571 per 100,000)
• age-standardised death rates increased with increasing remoteness
• the age-standardised death rate for those in Very remote areas was 1.6 times the rate of those living in Major cities (770 and 492 deaths per 100,000 population respectively)
• coronary heart disease, COPD and lung cancer were among the 5 leading causes of death in all remoteness areas
• dementia including Alzheimer’s disease had a lower ranking in Remote and Very remote areas (4^th and 6^th respectively) compared with Major cities and Regional areas (2^nd).

See Rural and remote health.

Socioeconomic areas

Rates of death and leading causes of death differ between socioeconomic groups. In 2018–2022:

• crude death rates were highest in the lowest socioeconomic areas (805 deaths per 100,000) and lowest in the highest socioeconomic areas (540 per 100,000 population)
• age-standardised death rates decreased with increasing socioeconomic position
• the age-standardised death rate for people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas was 1.5 times the rate for people living in the highest socioeconomic areas (616 and 418 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively)
• for the leading causes, excluding dementia, the age-standardised death rate was highest in the lowest socioeconomic area, and lowest in the highest area.

See Social determinants of health and Variation in deaths between population groups.

Multiple causes of death

Death statistics are usually compiled using the ‘underlying cause of death’ only. However, in most cases, more than one disease contributes to death. Causes listed on a death certificate that are not the underlying cause of death are called ‘associated causes of death’. For more information, see Multiple causes of death.

In 2022, 81% of natural deaths (that is, deaths not due to external causes such as accidents, injury and poisoning, or ill-defined causes) had more than one cause recorded on the death certificate (on average, 3.4 causes were recorded).

Some underlying causes of death had a higher number of associated causes of death than others:

• Deaths due to diabetes have an average of 5.5 causes recorded.
• Deaths due to dementia have an average of 3.1 causes recorded.

Some diseases were more likely to be reported as either the underlying or as an associated cause of death. For example:

• Kidney failure is more likely to be reported as an associated cause of death, with 40% of deaths due to diabetes reporting chronic or unspecified kidney failure.
• Liver and lung cancers are more likely to be reported as an underlying cause of death. For deaths with these causes recorded on the certificate, 90% and 89% of the underlying causes were due to the liver or lung cancer, respectively.

Multiple cause of death analysis can help to answer questions about what causes and contributes to death, not only from an underlying cause of death perspective. The report What do Australians die from? uses multiple cause of death data to understand some of the complexities in asking these questions.

Life expectancy

Life expectancy measures how long, on average, a person is expected to live based on current age- and sex-specific death rates. Life expectancy at birth is expressed as the number of years, on average, a newborn is expected to live.

For the first time since the mid-1990's, life expectancy in Australia decreased in 2020–2022 (by 0.1 years for males and females from 2019–2021) (ABS 2023a). However, Australia still has one of the highest life expectancies in the world – ranked fourth (males and females combined) in 2022, among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (OECD 2024). In Australia, a boy born in 2019–2022 can expect to live to the age of 81.2 and a girl can expect to live to 85.3 (ABS 2023a).

As with death rates and leading causes of death, life expectancy varies between population groups within Australia. For First Nations people born in 2020–2022, life expectancy is estimated to be 8.8 years lower than that for non-Indigenous males (71.9 years compared with 80.6) and 8.1 years lower than for non-Indigenous females (75.6 years compared with 83.8) (ABS 2023b).

For more information, see Life expectancy.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on causes on death in Australia, see:

• General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books
• Mortality Over Regions and Time (MORT) books
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Deaths, Australia, 2022
• ABS Causes of death, Australia, 2022

For more on this topic, see Life expectancy & deaths.