INTRODUCTION
There were 2,500 deaths registered in Australia in 2008 where the deceased person was identified as being of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both origins (Indigenous).
A variety of measures of mortality (age-specific death rates, median age at death, infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth) indicate that the mortality level of Indigenous Australians is substantially higher than that of the total Australian population.
The exact scale of difference between Indigenous and total population mortality is difficult to establish conclusively, due to quality issues with Indigenous deaths data and the uncertainties inherent with estimating and projecting the size and structure of the Indigenous population over time. Caution should be exercised when undertaking analysis of Indigenous deaths and mortality and, in particular, trends in Indigenous mortality.
Some of the issues affecting the reporting of Indigenous mortality include under identification of Indigenous deaths, unexplained changes in the number of people identified as Indigenous in different data collections and over time, the use of a standard Indigenous status question, and not stated Indigenous status.
Quality Declaration 
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