People with disability assessed their health more poorly than people without disability. In the 2017–18 NHS, 24% of adults with disability assessed their health as ‘very good or excellent’, compared with 65% of adults without disability (ABS 2019c). See Health of people with disability for more information.
Death rates are usually used to measure mortality, while morbidity measures include incidence of illness and injury, disease prevalence and comorbidity.
In Australia, death rates at a given age have continued to decline since at least the early 1900s. See Causes of death for more information.
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of premature death, ill health and disability (see Chronic conditions and multimorbidity). For disease-specific measures of mortality and morbidity, see Health status snapshots in Australia’s health snapshots.
For more information on the health of Australians, see:
Visit Burden of disease and Life expectancy & deaths for more on this topic.
References
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2018. National Health Survey: first results, 2017–18. ABS Cat. no. 4364.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.
ABS 2019a. Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2016. ABS Cat. no. 3105.0.65.001. Canberra: ABS.
ABS 2019b. Life tables, states, territories and Australia, 2016–2018. ABS Cat. no. 3302.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.
ABS 2019c. Microdata: National Health Survey, 2017–18, unit record file. ABS Cat. no. 4324.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS. Finding based on microdata analysis.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2019. Australian Burden of Disease Study: impact and causes of illness and death in Australia 2015. Australian Burden of Disease Study series no. 4. BOD 22. Canberra: AIHW.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) 2019b. Life expectancy at birth. Geneva: OECD.
OECD 2019a. Life expectancy at 65. Geneva: OECD.