AGE AT DEATH

Care should be exercised when analysing Indigenous deaths by age as differences in identification by age may lead to biased results.

3.4 Age at death, Indigenous status - 2008
		0	1-14	15-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65 years and over	Total(a)
State or territory(b)		no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
Males
Indigenous
	New South Wales	12	6	13	23	32	42	54	135	317
	Queensland	16	6	23	23	38	48	54	88	296
	South Australia	np	np	np	8	14	13	11	20	72
	Western Australia	17	8	20	35	45	74	53	95	347
	Northern Territory	np	np	22	20	np	41	51	53	237
Non-Indigenous
	New South Wales	227	84	216	364	641	1 374	2 504	18 746	24 162
	Queensland	151	60	173	245	411	798	1 659	10 385	13 882
	South Australia	np	np	np	97	141	303	605	4 881	6 142
	Western Australia	41	23	102	138	193	382	734	4 674	6 287
	Northern Territory	np	np	12	10	np	44	84	199	384
Total(c)
	New South Wales	241	91	233	391	682	1 442	2 603	19 074	24 765
	Queensland	174	69	204	279	468	865	1 745	10 658	14 462
	South Australia	31	19	74	109	159	321	618	4 923	6 255
	Western Australia	58	33	125	178	249	464	797	4 788	6 692
	Northern Territory	16	10	34	31	59	85	135	252	624
Females
Indigenous
	New South Wales	11	5	7	9	25	28	40	116	242
	Queensland	20	5	5	14	22	28	52	120	266
	South Australia	np	np	np	4	5	17	11	23	69
	Western Australia	11	4	13	17	20	34	36	123	258
	Northern Territory	np	np	11	17	np	41	43	75	230
Non-Indigenous
	New South Wales	159	53	88	132	311	801	1 587	20 403	23 536
	Queensland	108	42	66	107	199	462	903	10 491	12 378
	South Australia	np	np	np	31	89	206	416	5 466	6 260
	Western Australia	38	14	39	53	103	204	408	4 921	5 780
	Northern Territory	np	np	4	6	np	24	25	121	186
Total(c)
	New South Wales	171	59	99	144	338	843	1 643	20 717	24 017
	Queensland	134	49	72	124	237	511	971	10 775	12 873
	South Australia	28	14	21	35	96	226	429	5 512	6 361
	Western Australia	50	18	54	73	128	240	448	5 049	6 060
	Northern Territory	8	9	15	23	32	65	68	197	417
Persons
Indigenous
	New South Wales	23	11	20	32	57	70	94	251	559
	Queensland	36	11	28	37	60	76	106	208	562
	South Australia	np	np	10	12	19	30	22	43	141
	Western Australia	28	12	33	52	65	108	89	218	605
	Northern Territory	15	11	33	37	65	82	94	128	467
Non-Indigenous
	New South Wales	386	137	304	496	952	2 175	4 091	39 149	47 698
	Queensland	259	102	239	352	610	1 260	2 562	20 876	26 260
	South Australia	np	np	82	128	230	509	1 021	10 347	12 402
	Western Australia	79	37	141	191	296	586	1 142	9 595	12 067
	Northern Territory	9	8	16	16	24	68	109	320	570
Total(c)
	New South Wales	412	150	332	535	1 020	2 285	4 246	39 791	48 782
	Queensland	308	118	276	403	705	1 376	2 716	21 433	27 335
	South Australia	59	33	95	144	255	547	1 047	10 435	12 616
	Western Australia	108	51	179	251	377	704	1 245	9 837	12 752
	Northern Territory	24	19	49	54	91	150	203	449	1 041
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Includes deaths for which age of death was not stated.
(b) Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded due to small numbers of Indigenous deaths.
(c) Includes deaths for which Indigenous status was not stated.

Graph 3.5 illustrates the differences between the age structure of deaths of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations for the period 2006-2008. Whereas deaths of non-Indigenous persons are concentrated in the older age groups, deaths of Indigenous persons are more widely spread across all age groups.

Care should be exercised when analysing Indigenous and non-Indigenous age at death, as the data may be influenced by differences in identification by age, as well as different age structures of the two populations.

Age-specific death rates

In this section, age-specific death rates (ASDRs) have been calculated for New South Wales and Queensland combined and South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory combined. Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded due to small numbers of Indigenous deaths.

The non-reporting and/or incorrect reporting of a person's Indigenous status on the death registration form means that death rates calculated using the number of registered Indigenous deaths are underestimates of the true death rates prevalent among Indigenous Australians.

For both combined regions, death rates for 2006-2008 for Indigenous males and females in all age groups were higher than rates for non-Indigenous males and females (table 3.6).

For New South Wales and Queensland combined, ASDRs for Indigenous Australians aged 25 to 64 years were more than twice the rates for non-Indigenous Australians. For both males and females, the largest difference was for persons aged 35-44 years, where Indigenous age-specific death rates were more than three times higher than those recorded for non-Indigenous males and females respectively.

For South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory combined, differences between ASDRs for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians were greater. The greatest differences occurred among males aged 25 to 54 years and females aged 25 to 64 years. Rates for Indigenous persons in these ages were at least five times those recorded for non-Indigenous persons.

The denominators used in calculating Indigenous age-specific death rates were the 30 June 2007 projections (Series B) from Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 1991 to 2021 (cat. no. 3238.0).

3.6 Age-specific death rates(a), Indigenous status and sex - 2006-2008
	Males			Females
	Indigenous(b)	Non-Indigenous	Rate ratio(c)	Indigenous(b)	Non-Indigenous	Rate ratio(c)
NSW/Qld(d)
0(e)	8.5	5.1	1.7	7.3	3.8	1.9
1-4	51.3	23.9	2.1	33.6	18.4	1.8
5-14	20.4	10.9	1.9	12.5	8.4	1.5
15-24	103.8	56.9	1.8	46.3	23.0	2.0
25-34	199.2	81.1	2.5	114.7	32.9	3.5
35-44	398.7	127.7	3.1	258.1	66.5	3.9
45-54	797.6	281.1	2.8	495.9	167.9	3.0
55-64	1 651.6	670.5	2.5	1 144.0	396.5	2.9
65 and over	5 325.5	4 251.6	1.3	4 246.4	3 741.8	1.1
SA/WA/NT(f)
0(e)	11.9	3.2	3.7	9.5	3.2	2.9
1-4	55.2	24.4	2.3	56.9	13.9	4.1
5-14	41.2	8.1	5.1	20.9	7.3	2.9
15-24	253.2	65.3	3.9	134.6	25.9	5.2
25-34	503.5	97.0	5.2	280.4	36.7	7.6
35-44	1 005.6	133.2	7.6	507.7	72.3	7.0
45-54	1 632.9	274.2	6.0	1 048.6	164.0	6.4
55-64	2 826.3	644.4	4.4	2 057.2	383.2	5.4
65 and over	7 278.2	4 185.8	1.7	6 256.2	3 689.4	1.7
(a) Deaths per 100,000 population, except age 0.
(b) Indigenous rates are based on registered deaths and are therefore likely to be underestimated.
(c) Indigenous rate divided by the non-Indigenous rate.
(d) Data for New South Wales and Queensland combined.
(e) Infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
(f) Data for South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory combined.

Median age at death

Care should be exercised when analysing Indigenous median age at death, as it may also be affected by differences in identification by age. For example, higher levels of identification of Indigenous infant deaths compared with older age groups may result in the median age at death being underestimated.

Median age at death is also influenced to some extent by the age structure of a population, which itself has been influenced by the ages at which deaths occur. The Indigenous population is younger than the non-Indigenous population and this is reflected in the median age at death of the two populations (Baade & Coory, 2003).

In 2008, for the selected states and territories presented in table 3.7, the median age at death of Indigenous males ranged from 49 to 60 years while the median age at death for Indigenous females ranged from 54 to 64 years. In contrast, the median age at death for non-Indigenous males and females was considerably higher, ranging from 66 to 79 years and from 76 to 85 years respectively.

3.7 Median age at death(a), Indigenous status(b) - 2003-2008
		NSW	Qld	SA	WA	NT
Males
Indigenous
	2003	56.8	51.2	48.8	50.2	46.3
	2004	55.8	53.7	49.5	50.0	43.8
	2005	54.3	51.1	42.4	52.8	45.8
	2006	59.3	55.6	50.4	47.9	45.4
	2007	58.1	54.7	50.5	53.3	45.9
	2008	59.9	53.2	49.0	51.2	52.1
Non-Indigenous
	2003	76.5	75.9	77.7	76.1	65.9
	2004	77.0	76.2	77.6	76.3	63.0
	2005	77.2	76.4	77.9	76.6	63.7
	2006	77.8	76.7	78.3	76.9	64.7
	2007	78.1	77.1	78.7	76.9	64.6
	2008	78.5	77.3	79.2	77.1	66.3
Females
Indigenous
	2003	58.9	62.1	50.0	55.0	52.8
	2004	62.7	57.9	53.5	63.6	54.0
	2005	65.8	59.5	47.5	57.8	50.4
	2006	64.8	57.0	59.3	57.0	55.3
	2007	63.0	59.5	58.3	59.3	55.7
	2008	63.8	62.3	53.5	64.0	56.0
Non-Indigenous
	2003	82.7	82.2	83.2	82.4	74.5
	2004	82.8	82.5	83.3	82.3	71.3
	2005	83.1	82.6	83.7	83.2	70.5
	2006	83.5	83.1	84.1	83.1	75.0
	2007	83.7	83.3	84.3	83.4	69.3
	2008	84.2	83.7	84.6	84.1	75.7
(a) Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded due to small numbers of Indigenous deaths.
(b) Care should be exercised when comparing median age at death of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. See commentary.

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