Deaths, Australia methodology

Latest release
Reference period
2023

Overview

Scope

The ABS Death Registrations collection includes all deaths that occurred and were registered in Australia, including deaths of persons whose place of usual residence was overseas.

Geography

Data on deaths are available by the following geographies:

  • Australia
  • States and territories
  • SA2
  • SA4
  • LGA
  • Remoteness Areas
  • Indigenous Remoteness Areas

Source

Deaths data are sourced from death registrations systems administered by the various state and territory Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Collection method

Information about the deceased is supplied by a relative or other person acquainted with the deceased, or by an official of the institution where the death occurred.

Concepts, sources and methods

Descriptions of the underlying concepts and methods used are available in the Methodology and Quality declaration - summary.

History of changes

Not applicable to this release.

Explanatory notes

Introduction

This release contains statistics for deaths and mortality. Detailed information can be obtained from data cubes (in Microsoft Excel format) and Data Explorer datasets available electronically, from the Data downloads tab.

Populations used

Estimated Resident Populations (ERP) used in this release are based on the results of the 2021 Census and are as follows:

Scope and coverage

Data sources

Classifications

State and territory data

Calculating rates

Data treatments

Characteristics available

Data quality

In compiling death statistics, the ABS employs a variety of measures to improve the quality of the death registrations collection. While every opportunity is taken to ensure that the highest quality of statistics are provided, the following are known issues associated with the statistics included in this release.

Victorian death registrations

As a result of joint investigations between the ABS and the Victorian Registry, 2,812 death registrations from 2017, 2018 and 2019 were identified that had not previously been provided to the ABS. Of the 2,812 deaths, 40.4% were registered in 2017, 57.0% in 2018 and the remainder (2.6%) in 2019. An issue associated with the Registry's previous processing system (replaced in 2019) resulted in delays to the provision of some death registrations to the ABS. The 2,812 Victorian deaths are in scope of the 2019 reference year and are therefore included in the 2019 reference year.

There were 1,864 deaths registered in Victoria between 2013 and 2016 that were not supplied to the ABS until the 2021 reference year. As these deaths occurred more than five years prior to the reference year, they are not considered to be representative of mortality in 2021 and therefore are excluded from the 2021 reference year counts. These 1,864 death registrations are included in tables that are disseminated by year of occurrence of death. 

Interval between occurrence and registration of deaths

For the most part, statistics in this release refer to deaths registered during the calendar year shown. There is usually an interval between the occurrence and registration of a death (referred to as a registration 'lag') and as a result, some deaths occurring in one year are not registered until the following year or later. This can be caused by either a delay in the submission of a completed form to the registry, or a delay by the registry in processing the death. Deaths which occur in November and December are also likely to be registered in the following year.

Deaths registered in 2023, year of occurrence by state or territory of registration
Year of occurrenceNSW (%)Vic. (%)Qld (%)SA (%)WA (%)Tas. (%)NT (%)ACT (%)Aust. (%)
202394.193.49491.792.895.880.793.293.5
20225.86.568.37.14.218.86.86.4
20210.10.100000.300.1
2020 & earlier00.1000.100.100
  1. Where necessary, small values have been adjusted to protect confidentiality. As a result, sums of components may not add exactly to totals.

Of the 183,131 deaths registered in 2023, 93.5% (171,216) occurred in 2023, while 6.4% occurred in 2022 and the remainder occurred in 2021 or earlier years. Any instances where year of occurrence was recorded as unknown are included in the 2020 and earlier category.

Unknown infant age at death

For some infant deaths, only limited information for age at death is known. These deaths are included in the following categories:

  • not stated minutes and not stated hours (i.e. age at death was under one day) are included in 'Under one day'
  • not stated days (i.e. age at death was at least one day but under one month) are included in 'One week to under four weeks'
  • not stated months (i.e. age at death was at least one month but under one year) are included in 'Four weeks to under one year'.

COVID-19 Mortality

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Registration of deaths is the responsibility of the state and territory Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDMs). Information about the deceased is acquired from the death registration form (DRF). All states and territories use information from the DRF to identify an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander death. In addition, most states and territories also use the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to identify an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander death. Victoria is the only jurisdiction where the MCCD is not used.

In 2007, the MCCD was introduced in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

The Queensland RBDM introduced the MCCD in 2015. This resulted in a noticeable decrease in the number of deaths for which the Indigenous status was 'not stated' and an increase in the number of deaths identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in Queensland. If the Indigenous status reported in the DRF did not agree with that in the MCCD, an identification from either source that the deceased was an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander was given preference over non-Indigenous.

In 2022 and 2023, the MCCD was introduced in New South Wales and Victoria respectively. Information on the MCCD was used for identifying Indigenous status, 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 now aligns deaths data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in New South Wales and Victoria with all other jurisdictions where both the DRF and the MCCD have been used for a number of years. Additionally in 2023, for coroner referred deaths across all jurisdictions information captured on the National Coronial Information System during the coronial investigation process has been made available to the ABS. Use of these additional sources has led to improved recording of Indigenous status. These changes have introduced breaks in time series in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander death statistics in New South Wales in 2022 and Victoria in 2023, and also at the Australian level. Therefore caution should be used when making comparisons with previous years. For more information on the changes for New South Wales see Technical Note: The impact of using two sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in NSW in 2022 and for Victoria and coroner referred deaths see Technical Note: The impact of using multiple sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in 2023 – changes for Victoria and coroner referred deaths.

While it is considered likely that most deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are registered, a proportion of these deaths are not reported as such by the family, health worker or funeral director during the death registration process. That is, whilst data is provided to the ABS for the Indigenous status question (99.8% of all deaths registered in 2023), there are concerns regarding the accuracy of the data. The funeral director may not always directly ask the Indigenous status question of the deceased's relatives and friends.

The number of registered deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are included for all jurisdictions. However, detailed disaggregation's of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are provided only for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. These five states and territories have evidence of a sufficient level of Indigenous identification and numbers of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to support mortality analysis.

There are several data collection forms on which people are asked to state whether they or the persons for whom they are reporting are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. However, the results are not always consistent, the main reason being the changes in identification. Identification levels vary across datasets, jurisdictions and time.

People change their identification for a range of factors, including:

  • how the information is collected (e.g. Census, survey, or administrative data)
  • who provides the information (e.g. the person in question, a relative, a health professional, or an official)
  • the perception of why the information is required, and how it will be used
  • education programs about reporting as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
  • cultural aspects and feelings associated with reporting as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
     

In addition to those deaths recorded as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander or non-Indigenous, a number of deaths occur each year where Indigenous status is not stated on the DRF. In 2023, there were 336 deaths registered in Australia for whom Indigenous status was not stated, representing 0.2% of all deaths registered.

Data presented in this release may therefore underestimate the level of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths and mortality in Australia. Lags in registrations may also affect the reliability of measures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mortality. Caution should be exercised when interpreting data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people presented in this release, especially with regard to year-to-year changes.

Quality declaration - summary

Institutional environment

Relevance

Timeliness

Accuracy

Coherence

Interpretability

Accessibility

Glossary

Glossary

Abbreviations

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

The ABS' releases draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. The efforts of each state and territory's RBDM to improve the data quality, coverage and timeliness of death registration information, processes and systems are noted and valued by the ABS. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

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