Subtopic: All causes of deaths
Description
- Number of deaths from all causes for First Nations males.
- Number of deaths from all causes for First Nations females.
Data source
AIHW National Mortality Database – deaths registered in years 2017 to 2021. Snapshots: 2017, 2018 and 2019 – Final; 2020 – Revised; 2021 – Preliminary. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS.
Region types reported
- Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 Main Structure regions: Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4), States and Territories, Australia
- ASGS 2016 Indigenous structure regions: Indigenous Regions (IREG).
- ESRI dashboard is based on 2021 boundaries, so for selected regions map boundaries do not exactly match data boundaries. This includes:
- IREGs: Cairns – Atherton; Townsville – Mackay; Alice Springs and Apatula
- SA4s: Sydney – Blacktown; Sydney – Parramatta; Sydney - Outer South West; Sydney – South West and Sydney – Sutherland.
Suppression rules
Data have been suppressed if the number was less than 5 for confidentiality reasons. Consequential suppression has also been applied where required to prevent back-calculation.
Notes
- Mortality data for deaths registered in 2017–2021 among people identified as of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) origin. Deaths were excluded where Indigenous status is non-Indigenous or not stated.
- Deaths are counted according to year of registration of death and the region of usual residence.
- For more information about Australian mortality data, including scope and coverage of the collection and a quality declaration, please refer to Deaths, Australia and Causes of death, Australia available from the ABS website.
Description
- Median age at death for First Nations males for all-cause mortality.
- Median age at death for First Nations females for all-cause mortality.
Data source
AIHW National Mortality Database – deaths registered in years 2017 to 2021. Snapshots: 2017, 2018 and 2019 – Final; 2020 – Revised; 2021 – Preliminary. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS.
Region types reported
- Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 Main Structure regions: Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4) (in NSW, Qld, WA, SA & NT only), States and Territories (NSW, Qld, WA, SA & NT only), Australia (which includes all states and territories).
- ASGS 2016 Indigenous structure regions: Indigenous Regions (IREG) (in NSW, Qld, WA, SA & NT only).
- ESRI dashboard is based on 2021 boundaries, so for selected regions map boundaries do not exactly match data boundaries. This includes:
- IREGs: Cairns – Atherton; Townsville – Mackay; Alice Springs and Apatula
- SA4s: Sydney – Blacktown; Sydney – Parramatta; Sydney - Outer South West; Sydney – South West and Sydney – Sutherland.
Suppression rules
- Median ages at death are suppressed where there are less than 10 deaths (excluding those with missing age at death) in an area by sex. A total of 8 median ages at death are suppressed, all at the SA4 level.
- Median ages at death for Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory and SA4s in the three states and territories are not shown, due to data quality issues.
Notes
- Mortality data for deaths registered in 2017–2021 among people identified as of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) origin. Deaths were excluded where Indigenous status is non-Indigenous or not stated.
- Deaths are counted according to year of registration of death and the region of usual residence.
- The median age of death is based on age at death in single years, assuming a uniform distribution for deaths occurring in an age interval. The length of the age interval could be greater than one year, depending on the ages at death as there may be no deaths for some ages.
- Deaths with missing age at death are excluded.
- For more information about Australian mortality data, including scope and coverage of the collection and a quality declaration, please refer to Deaths, Australia and Causes of death, Australia available from the ABS website.
Subtopic: Life expectancy
Description
- Life expectancy at birth for First Nations males.
- Life expectancy at birth for First Nations females.
Data source
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Deaths Collection
Region types reported
Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 Main Structure regions: States and Territories (NSW, Qld, WA and the NT only), Australia (which includes all states and territories).
Notes
Life expectancy at birth is a summary indicator of how long, on average, a group of newborn babies could expect to live if current death rates at each age remained unchanged. Life expectancy is an average value, not an exact measure of how long any individual will actually live; death rates in the population will change during a person’s lifetime and a person may die at an earlier or older age.
Life expectancy is calculated using life tables, which show the probability of dying at each age group based on deaths data and population estimates. Life expectancy can be calculated for any age using life tables, though life expectancy at birth is a common choice as a summary indicator.
The quality of life expectancy estimates depends on having complete and accurate data on the average number of deaths that occur in a period (by sex and age), and reliable estimates of the population (at the mid-point of the period) exposed to the risk of dying. While it is considered likely that the majority of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations people) are registered, some of these deaths are not identified as First Nations people when they are registered (for example, because a person's Indigenous status is not reported during the deaths registration process). The quality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations people) identification in deaths data varies across state/territory collections, geography and over time.
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. 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.
With regards to the population estimates, the extent of undercoverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the 2021 Census and the relatively small sample size of the Post Enumeration Survey to adjust for that undercoverage means the estimates should be interpreted with a degree of caution.
The estimates shown in the Regional Overview for Australia are the ABS’ ‘headline estimates’ — these are estimates that take into account differences in First Nations identification by age. This method improves the accuracy, but could only be used for national-level estimates, due to insufficient sample from the Post Enumeration Survey to accurately calculate age-specific identification rates. Life expectancy estimates for states/territories are also presented, but these assume uniform identification by age. Due to the different methodologies, life expectancy estimates for the states/territory are not directly comparable with the life expectancy estimates for Australia.
Reference material
ABS (2023) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy, ABS website, accessed 29 November 2023.
Subtopic: Leading causes of death
Description
- Number of deaths due to the 5 leading causes, for First Nations persons.
- Death due to each of the 5 leading causes as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations persons.
- Number of deaths due to the 5 leading causes, for First Nations males.
- Deaths due to each of the 5 leading causes as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations males.
- Number of deaths due to the 5 leading causes, for First Nations females.
- Deaths due to each of the 5 leading causes as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations females.
Data source
AIHW National Mortality Database – deaths registered in years 2017 to 2021. Snapshots: 2017, 2018 and 2019 – Final; 2020 – Revised; 2021 – Preliminary. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS.
Region types reported
- Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 Main Structure regions: Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4), States and Territories, Australia.
- ASGS 2016 Indigenous structure regions: Indigenous Regions (IREG).
- ESRI dashboard is based on 2021 boundaries, so for selected regions map boundaries do not exactly match data boundaries. This includes:
- IREGs: Cairns – Atherton; Townsville – Mackay; Alice Springs and Apatula
- SA4s: Sydney – Blacktown; Sydney – Parramatta; Sydney - Outer South West; Sydney – South West and Sydney – Sutherland.
Suppression rules
- Data have been suppressed if the number of deaths was less than 5 for confidentiality reasons. Consequential suppression has also been applied where required to prevent back-calculation.
- Percentage of deaths due to each of the 5 leading causes as a proportion of deaths due to all causes are not shown where the denominator for the percentage was less than 100, because of concerns about the reliability of percentages based on small denominators.
Notes
- Mortality data for deaths registered in 2017–2021 among people identified as of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) origin. Deaths were excluded where Indigenous status is non-Indigenous or not stated.
- Two quantities (the number of deaths and percentage of all deaths) were calculated for males, females and persons.
- Cause of Death Unit Record File data are provided to the AIHW by the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System (managed by the Victorian Department of Justice) and include cause of death coded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The data are maintained by the AIHW in the National Mortality Database.
- Deaths are counted according to year of registration of death and the region of usual residence.
- Cause of death information are based on underlying cause of death and are classified according to the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).
- Relative position of each cause of death based on number of deaths. If 2 or more causes of death have the same number of deaths, they are ranked by ICD-10 codes. Top 5 leading causes of death are based on AIHW-modified version of Becker et al. (2006). A method for deriving leading causes of death. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 84: 297–304. ICD-10 codes are presented in parentheses.
- For more information about Australian mortality data, including scope and coverage of the collection and a quality declaration, please refer to Deaths, Australia and Causes of death, Australia available from the ABS website.
Reference material
Becker R, Silvi J, Ma Fat D, L’Hours A and Laurenti R (2006) A method for deriving leading causes of death, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84:297–304, doi:10.2471/blt.05.028670.
World Health Organisation (WHO) (2021) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision, WHO website, accessed 12 May 2021.
Subtopic: Potentially avoidable deaths
Description
- Number of deaths that were potentially avoidable among First Nations males aged 0–74.
- Percentage of deaths that were potentially avoidable as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations males aged 0–74.
- Number of deaths that were potentially avoidable among First Nations females aged 0–74.
- Percentage of deaths that were potentially avoidable as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations females aged 0–74.
- Number of deaths that were potentially avoidable among First Nations persons aged 0–74.
- Percentage of deaths that were potentially avoidable as a proportion of deaths due to all causes, for First Nations persons aged 0–74.
Data source
AIHW National Mortality Database – deaths registered in years 2017 to 2021. Snapshots: 2017, 2018 and 2019 – Final; 2020 – Revised; 2021 – Preliminary. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS.
Region types reported
- Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 Main Structure regions: States and Territories Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4), States and Territories, Australia.
- ASGS 2016 Indigenous structure regions: Indigenous Regions (IREG).
- ESRI dashboard is based on 2021 boundaries, so for selected regions map boundaries do not exactly match data boundaries. This includes:
- IREGs: Cairns – Atherton; Townsville – Mackay; Alice Springs and Apatula
- SA4s: Sydney – Blacktown; Sydney – Parramatta; Sydney - Outer South West; Sydney – South West and Sydney – Sutherland.
Suppression rules
- Data have been suppressed if the number of deaths was less than 5 for confidentiality reasons. Consequential suppression has also been applied where required to prevent back-calculation.
- Percentage of deaths that were potentially avoidable as a proportion of deaths due to all causes are not shown where the denominator for the percentage was less than 100, because of concerns about the reliability of percentages based on small denominators.
Notes
- Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System (managed by the Victorian Department of Justice) and include cause of death coded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The data are maintained by the AIHW in the National Mortality Database.
- Deaths are counted according to year of registration of death and the region of usual residence.
- Cause of death information are based on underlying cause of death and are classified according to the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). Deaths registered in 1997 onwards are classified according to the 10th revision (ICD-10).
- Potentially avoidable deaths (PAD) is a measure of health system performance. Deaths among people aged under 75 that are avoidable in the context of the present health care system. PADs include deaths from conditions that are potentially preventable through individualised care and/or treatable through existing primary or hospital care. PADs are classified using nationally agreed definitions (AIHW 2022. National Healthcare Agreement: PI 16–Potentially avoidable deaths, 2022. Viewed 1 April 2023, <https://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/740864>).
Reference material
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2022), National Healthcare Agreement: PI 16–Potentially avoidable deaths, 2022, AIHW website, accessed 1 April 2023.
World Health Organisation (WHO) (2021) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision, WHO website, accessed 12 May 2021.