Overview

Life expectancy is one of the most commonly used measures of overall health of a population. It is expressed as either the number of years a newborn baby is expected to live, or the expected years of life remaining for a person at a given age, and is estimated from the death rates in a population. Examining causes, patterns and trends in death can also 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.

More reports and statistics on life expectancy & deaths can be found under Burden of disease and Injury.

Latest findings

In 2018, the leading cause of death for females was dementia including Alzheimer disease (12%) In 2018, the leading cause of death for males was coronary heart disease (13%) Over the 5-year period, an average of 141 Indigenous Australians per year died as the result of suicide Over the 5-year period, an annual average of 86 Indigenous Australians died as the result of transport crashes Between 2011–12 and 2015–16, 2,145 Indigenous Australians died because of an injury—an annual average of 429 deaths An annual average of 60 Indigenous Australians died due to unintentional poisoning by pharmaceuticals Over time, suicide rates for Indigenous females rose by an annual average of 6% In 2018, 49% of deaths for people aged less than 75 were potentially avoidable deaths Potentially avoidable death rates fell by 45% between 1998 and 2018 (from 183 to 100 deaths per 100,000 population) In 2018, there were 158,493 deaths registered in Australia In 2018, child deaths rates (ages 0–4 years) were 31% lower than child death rates in 2008 (from 105 to 72 per 100,000) In 2018, there were 26,700 potentially avoidable deaths Over the period 1907 to 2018, the age-standardised death rate fell by 75%

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Highlights

Femalesborn in 2016–2018 can expect to live around 4 years longer than males—84.9 years compared with 80.7 years
158,493deaths were registered in Australia in 2018
2 in 3deaths registered were of people aged 75 and over
Dementiaincluding Alzheimer disease was the leading cause of death for females (12%)
A 75% fallin the age-standardised death rate was recorded between 1907 and 2018
Indigenous Australiansborn in 2015–2017 can expect to live around 8 years less than non-Indigenous Australians
1 in 4deaths were due to circulatory diseases
Coronary heart diseasewas the leading cause of death was for males (13%)
49%of deaths for people aged less than 75 were potentially avoidable deaths
Remote and Very remote areas had mortality rates 1.2 and 1.5 times as high as Major cities, respectively, in 2014–2018