Overview

Men and women have distinct health and welfare needs and concerns related to their gender and biological sex. This is illustrated by different rates of injury, illness and mortality; different attitudes towards health and other risks; the way each group uses health services; and differences in their health outcomes and wellbeing.

More reports and statistics on women can be found under Mothers & babies.

Latest findings

60% of men and 66% of women in 2017–18 had a waist circumference that indicated high risk of metabolic complications Indigenous women are up to twice as likely to have CVD, and to die from coronary heart disease or stroke Australia had the 8th highest proportion of overweight or obese adults aged 15 and over among 23 22,200 women died from CVD in 2016—or 3 in 10 of all female deaths 2 in 3 (67%) adults were overweight or obese in 2017–18—36% were overweight but not obese and 31% were obese An estimated 510,000 Australian women reported 1 or more heart, stroke and vascular diseases in 2017–18 One in four (25%) children and adolescents aged 2–17 were overweight or obese in 2017–18 In 2017–18, 38% of adults in the lowest socioeconomic areas were obese, compared with 24% in the highest CVD hospitalisation rates for females fell overall between 2006–07 and 2015–16 but increased among younger women CVD accounted for 12% of the total burden of disease among Australian women in 2015

Latest reports

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Highlights

Femalesborn in 2014–16 can expect to live 4.2 years longer than males—84.6 years compared with 80.4 years
47%of women and 42% of men aged 18–64 were inactive or insufficiently active in 2014–15
2 in 3people in permanent residential aged care in 2014 were women
Malesaccounted for 62% of premature deaths in 2016
52%of females reported having 1 or more of the 8 selected chronic diseases in 2014–15, compared with 48% of males
30.5 yearswas the average age of all women who gave birth in 2016, up from 29.8 years in 2006
85%of domestic violence in 2012 was perpetrated against women
Suicide ratewas 2 times as high among ex-serving men aged 18–24 compared with all Australian men of the same age