Target 1

Measure

Life expectancy at birth for First Nations males and First Nations females.

Data period

3-year period (2020–2022)

Data source

ABS Life Tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, via the Australian Government Productivity Commission website (PC 2023; ABS 2023a).

Region types

Main structures: Australia (includes NSW, Qld, WA, NT only), states and territories.

Suppression

Measure based on publicly available data with no further suppression rules applied.

Notes

• Australia values comprised of states and territories that produce sub-national life expectancy estimates by Indigenous status: New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only.


• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous life tables are based on ERP (based on the Census of Population and Housing and the Census Post Enumeration Survey) and death registration information provided by the State/Territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages.


• Life expectancy estimates by Indigenous status are produced for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only. These estimates are calculated without taking age-specific identification rates into account. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy estimates are not produced for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory due to the small number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths reported in these jurisdictions. Caution is required when interpreting trends in life expectancy estimates, because of changes in Indigenous identification across data collection and over time, and variation across geographies and socioeconomic groups.


• All states and territories use information acquired from the Death registration form (DRF) to identify an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander death. Over time, jurisdictions have supplemented information from the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to improve the identification of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander deaths in the data. New South Wales started using information on the MCCD for identifying Indigenous status from 2022, and the deceased was identified as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person when recorded as such on either the DRF or the MCCD. If the two sources did not agree, identification on either source was given preference over recording the deceased as non-Indigenous. This change aligns deaths records for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in New South Wales with most other jurisdictions (with the exception of Victoria), where both the DRF and the MCCD have been used for a number of years. This change in how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths were identified means that life expectancy estimates for 2020–2022 cannot be compared with previous life expectancy estimates for New South Wales.

Measures

• Gap in life expectancy at birth between First Nations and non-Indigenous males (years).


• Gap in life expectancy at birth between First Nations and non-Indigenous females (years).

Data period

3-year period (2020–2022)

Data source

ABS Life Tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, via the Australian Government Productivity Commission website (PC 2023; ABS 2023a).

Region types

Main structures: Australia (includes NSW, Qld, WA, NT only), states and territories.

Suppression

Measure based on publicly available data with no further suppression rules applied.

Notes

• Australia values comprised of states and territories that produce sub-national life expectancy estimates by Indigenous status: New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only.


• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous life tables are based on ERP (based on the Census of Population and Housing and the Census Post Enumeration Survey) and death registration information provided by the State/Territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages.


• Life expectancy estimates by Indigenous status are produced for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only. These estimates are calculated without taking age-specific identification rates into account. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy estimates are not produced for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory due to the small number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths reported in these jurisdictions. Caution is required when interpreting trends in life expectancy estimates, because of changes in Indigenous identification across data collection and over time, and variation across geographies and socioeconomic groups.


• All states and territories use information acquired from the Death registration form (DRF) to identify an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander death. Over time, jurisdictions have supplemented information from the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to improve the identification of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander deaths in the data. New South Wales started using information on the MCCD for identifying Indigenous status from 2022, and the deceased was identified as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person when recorded as such on either the DRF or the MCCD. If the two sources did not agree, identification on either source was given preference over recording the deceased as non-Indigenous. This change aligns deaths records for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in New South Wales with most other jurisdictions (with the exception of Victoria), where both the DRF and the MCCD have been used for a number of years. This change in how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths were identified means that life expectancy estimates for 2020–2022 cannot be compared with previous life expectancy estimates for New South Wales.

Measure

Top 5 underlying cause of death for First Nations males and First Nations females.

Data period

2022

Data source

Cause of Death, Australia (ABS 2023b, 2023c).

Region types

Main structures: Australia (includes NSW, Qld, WA, NT only), states and territories.

Suppression

Measure based on publicly available data with no further suppression rules applied.

Notes

• Australia values comprised of states and territories that produce sub-national life expectancy estimates by Indigenous status: New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only.


• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin of a deceased person is captured through the death registration process. It is noted on the Death Registration Form (DRF) and the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD). However it is recognised that not all such deaths are captured through these processes, which may lead to under-identification. While data is provided to the ABS for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin of the deceased for around 99% of all deaths, there are sometimes concerns regarding the accuracy of the data.


• Additionally, a number of deaths occur each year for which the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin is not stated on the death registration form. In 2022, there were 975 deaths registered in Australia for whom the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin was not stated, representing 0.5% of all deaths registered, a slight decrease from 2021 (0.6%). This difference was largely driven by fewer deaths with a not stated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin registered in New South Wales (from 463 in 2021 to 175 in 2022). 


• Data presented may underestimate the number of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people due to factors relating to form completion and propensity for an informant to identify the deceased as being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. Additionally, a higher proportion of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are referred to a coroner. Coroner referred deaths can take longer to register which may cause some disparities in annual registration data.