3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2011 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/03/2013   
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Contents >> Perinatal Deaths >> Overview - Perinatal Deaths


OVERVIEW

Perinatal deaths comprise stillbirths (fetal deaths) and deaths of infants within the first 28 days of life (neonatal deaths). New scope definitions were applied to the perinatals collection in November 2007 to achieve consistency between ABS collections and other external collections. See Perinatal Deaths, Australia, 2007 (cat. no. 3304.0) for the new scope definitions and historical data for the years 1999-2006 republished based on the new scope.


Causes of Death revisions process

All coroner certified deaths registered after 1 January 2006 are subject to a revisions process. For more information see Explanatory Notes 29-33.

Please note, the revisions process impacts only the causes of death assigned to a record. The revisions process does not impact on the identification of a record as perinatal, fetal or neonatal and therefore total counts will not change due to the application of the revisions process.

Where presented, this publication and associated data cubes contain final 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and revised 2010 causes of death data. Data for 2011 is preliminary and will be subject to the revisions process.


Perinatal deaths

In 2011, there were 2,562 perinatal deaths registered in Australia, compared with 2,609 registered in 2010, a decrease of 1.8%. This was 3.5% higher than the number registered in 2002 (2,475).

The number of fetal deaths in 2011 was 1,748, 1.1% less than the number registered in 2010 (1,767), which represented an increase of 8.0% over the last decade (1,618 in 2002).

814 neonatal deaths were registered in 2011, 3.3% lower than the number registered in 2010 (842), and a 5.0% decrease from registrations in 2002 (857).

In 2011, there were 1,384 male perinatal deaths and 1,178 female perinatal deaths. The sex ratio was 117 male perinatal deaths for every 100 female perinatal deaths, compared with 124 males per 100 females in 2010.

Graph Image for TRENDS IN PERINATAL(a) DEATHS(b)

Footnote(s): (a) Perinatal deaths are all fetal deaths (at least 20 weeks' gestation or at least 400 grams birth weight) plus all neonatal deaths (death of a live born baby within 28 days of birth). See Glossary for further information. (b) All causes of death data from 2006 onward are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table are: 2006-2009 (final), 2010 (revised), 2011 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 29-33 and Technical Notes, Causes of Death Revisions, 2006 in Causes of Death, Australia, 2010 (cat. 3303.0) and Causes of Death Revisions, 2009 and 2010 in this publication. (c) Fetal death rates and perinatal death rates are calculated per 1,000 all births for the calendar year. Neonatal death rates are calculated per 1,000 live births for the calendar year. See Glossary for further information.

Source(s): Causes of Death, Australia


7.2 Fetal, Neonatal and Perinatal Deaths(a), by sex (b) - Number and death rates(c): Selected years(d)
2002
2008
2009
2010
2011
No.
Rate(c)
No.
Rate(c)
No.
Rate(c)
No.
Rate(c)
No.
Rate(c)
Fetal
Males(b)
872
6.8
877
5.7
960
6.2
948
6.2
930
6.0
Females
746
6.1
771
5.3
820
5.7
819
5.6
818
5.5
Persons
1 618
6.4
1 648
5.5
1 780
6.0
1 767
5.9
1 748
5.8
Neonatal
Males(b)
468
3.6
487
3.2
487
3.3
498
3.3
454
2.9
Females
389
3.2
366
2.5
366
2.4
344
2.4
360
2.5
Persons
857
3.4
853
2.9
853
2.8
842
2.8
814
2.7
Perinatal
Males(b)
1 340
10.4
1 364
8.9
1 470
9.5
1 446
9.4
1 384
8.9
Females
1 135
9.2
1 137
7.8
1 201
8.1
1 163
8.0
1 178
8.0
Persons
2 475
9.8
2 501
8.4
2 671
8.8
2 609
8.7
2 562
8.4
(a) Perinatal deaths are all fetal deaths (at least 20 weeks' gestation or at least 400 grams birth weight) plus all neonatal deaths (death of a live born baby within 28 days of birth). See Glossary for further information.
(b) Male deaths include those perinatal deaths of sex indeterminate.
(c) Fetal death rates and perinatal death rates are calculated per 1,000 all births for the calendar year. Neonatal death rates are calculated per 1,000 live births for the calendar year. See Glossary for further information.
(d) All causes of death data from 2006 onward are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table are: 2006-2009 (final), 2010 (revised), 2011 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 29-33 and Technical Notes, Causes of Death Revisions, 2006 in Causes of Death, Australia, 2010 and Causes of Death Revisions, 2009 and 2010 in this publication.



Sources of perinatal death data

The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes perinatal death data on an annual basis. Data for this publication are sourced from state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Care should be taken when comparing data in this publication to other available sources of information on perinatal deaths. For example, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) publish perinatal death data on an annual basis in the publication "Australia's Mothers and Babies". Data for the AIHW publication are sourced from midwives, and other staff, who collect information from mothers and perinatal administrative and clinical record systems.



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