Provisional Mortality Statistics

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Provisional deaths data for measuring changes in patterns of mortality

Reference period

Jan - Aug 2023

Released

24/11/2023

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Key statistics

There were 15,736 deaths which occurred in August 2023. This is 11.2% less than in August 2022.
Between January and August, there were 122,112 deaths. This is 5.7% less than in 2022.
COVID-19 caused 143 deaths in September, down from 158 in August.

This release of the Provisional Mortality Statistics report contains summary mortality statistics only. As previously advertised, detailed Provisional Mortality Statistics releases will change to every 2 months, with summary statistics being produced for the alternate months.

Updated estimates of excess mortality for 2023 will be released on 18 December 2023.

Australian deaths by week

All-cause deaths

In 2023, there were 122,112 deaths that occurred by 31 August and were registered by 31 October. This is 11,974 deaths (10.9%) more than the baseline average, but 7,435 (5.7%) less than in 2022.
In August 2023 there were 15,736 deaths, 1.5% more than the baseline average but 11.2% less than in 2022.
13,856 of the deaths occurring in August 2023 were doctor certified and 1,880 were coroner referred.

Deaths are presented by counts only. Counts of death do not account for changes in population.

All deaths, Australia, 3 January 2022 - 27 August 2023 vs baseline benchmarks
	baseline range	2023 deaths	2022 deaths	baseline average deaths
Week 1	2819\|3030	3,487	3,334	2,928
Week 2	2828\|2997	3,282	3,740	2,918
Week 3	2764\|3150	3,323	3,892	2,940
Week 4	2883\|2957	3,212	3,786	2,918
Week 5	2745\|3072	3,363	3,745	2,898
Week 6	2724\|2963	3,200	3,568	2,889
Week 7	2825\|2959	3,288	3,418	2,893
Week 8	2857\|3095	3,230	3,413	2,990
Week 9	2858\|3071	3,291	3,382	2,961
Week 10	2882\|3118	3,362	3,213	2,986
Week 11	2785\|3089	3,398	3,354	2,941
Week 12	2871\|3041	3,317	3,350	2,929
Week 13	2858\|3092	3,287	3,418	2,974
Week 14	2784\|2988	3,261	3,451	2,923
Week 15	2828\|3259	3,470	3,378	3,030
Week 16	2965\|3247	3,522	3,485	3,069
Week 17	2840\|3276	3,490	3,497	3,036
Week 18	2963\|3369	3,517	3,681	3,093
Week 19	3108\|3370	3,754	3,799	3,207
Week 20	3091\|3362	3,793	3,660	3,201
Week 21	3173\|3517	3,819	3,775	3,307
Week 22	3199\|3382	3,916	3,919	3,285
Week 23	3263\|3567	3,698	4,039	3,372
Week 24	3130\|3494	3,614	4,139	3,338
Week 25	3232\|3458	3,829	4,006	3,340
Week 26	3310\|3466	3,733	3,915	3,379
Week 27	3375\|3545	3,793	4,119	3,460
Week 28	3214\|3598	3,692	4,126	3,417
Week 29	3376\|3700	3,705	4,152	3,539
Week 30	3467\|3670	3,709	4,165	3,566
Week 31	3287\|3749	3,603	4,213	3,463
Week 32	3209\|3734	3,585	4,126	3,465
Week 33	3375\|3673	3,627	3,934	3,499
Week 34	3354\|3668	3,467	3,890	3,491
Week 35	3443\|3843		3,731	3,557
Week 36	3313\|3621		3,780	3,463
Week 37	3111\|3697		3,698	3,417
Week 38	3152\|3603		3,684	3,364
Week 39	3100\|3530		3,417	3,278
Week 40	3137\|3405		3,504	3,268
Week 41	3155\|3359		3,465	3,215
Week 42	3075\|3359		3,542	3,168
Week 43	2971\|3335		3,315	3,110
Week 44	3015\|3309		3,390	3,110
Week 45	2870\|3186		3,502	3,007
Week 46	2903\|3340		3,449	3,056
Week 47	2896\|3262		3,498	3,032
Week 48	2882\|3259		3,439	3,022
Week 49	2921\|3195		3,599	3,010
Week 50	2975\|3275		3,543	3,058
Week 51	2914\|3390		3,590	3,047
Week 52	2775\|3231		3,443	2,958

All deaths, Australia, 3 January 2022 - 27 August 2023 vs baseline benchmarks

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Data is by occurrence.
Data is provisional and subject to change.
Weeks are defined as seven-day periods which start on a Monday as per the ISO week date system. Refer to 'Weekly comparisons' on the methodology page of this publication for more information regarding the data in this graph. Week 1 ended 9 Jan 2022 and 8 Jan 2023.
The baseline includes deaths from 2017-19 and 2021.

Mortality by selected causes of death

Cause-specific mortality

The following analysis is based only on doctor certified deaths (i.e. coroner referred deaths are not included). Any changes in patterns of coroner referral could affect counts of doctor certified deaths. Some conditions have higher coroner referral rates (ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and to a lesser extent, respiratory diseases and diabetes) so counts for those conditions are more likely to be affected by such changes.

COVID-19

In August 2023 there were 151 deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor. This is 86.0% lower than the 1,082 deaths in August 2022.
There have been 3,282 deaths due to COVID-19 certified by a doctor between January and August 2023. This is 58.0% lower than the 7,808 deaths recorded in the same period in 2022.
As the pandemic has progressed the number of people dying 'with' COVID-19 has increased. In August, 73 people died with COVID-19 as a contributing factor to their death (ie. COVID-19 was certified on the death certificate but it was not the underlying cause of death).

Other causes of death

Deaths due to ischaemic heart disease were 14.6% below the baseline average in August 2023 and 18.1% lower than August 2022.
Deaths due to dementia including Alzheimer's disease were comparable to the baseline average in August 2023, but 10.8% below August 2022.
Deaths due to respiratory diseases were 13.9% below than the baseline average in August 2023 and 3.2% lower than August 2022.
Deaths due to cerebrovascular diseases were 13.9% below than the baseline average in August 2023 and 6.4% lower than August 2022.

Doctor certified deaths by cause, 2023, 2022, Baseline
			August			Year to date - January - August
			2023	2022	baseline average	2023	2022	baseline average
Cancer			4,286	4,435	4,115	33,960	33,778	31,783
Dementia			1,495	1,676	1,492	11,525	12,189	10,278
Respiratory diseases			1,379	1,424	1,602	9,380	9,507	9,373
	Chronic lower respiratory diseases		734	814	822	5,075	5,265	5,136
	Influenza and pneumonia		263	249	429	1,791	1,771	1,962
		Pneumonia	231	235	276	1,518	1,501	1,618
Ischaemic heart disease			1,183	1,445	1,386	9,007	10,188	9,818
Other cardiac conditions			933	980	915	6,738	6,825	6,000
Cerebrovascular diseases			771	824	895	6,002	6,320	6,413
Diabetes			487	504	448	3,632	3,802	3,158
COVID-19			151	1,082	na	3,282	7,808	na

a. Only doctor certified deaths are included.
b. Data is by date of occurrence.
c. The baseline includes deaths from 2017-19 and 2021

COVID-19 mortality

Of the 643,092 death registrations received by the ABS (both doctor and coroner certified) in Australia during the entire pandemic period, 20,402 (3.2%) are of people who have died from or with COVID-19. Tabulations listed below include COVID-19 deaths by year of occurrence, state or territory of registry and by age.

Deaths due to COVID-19 by year and month of occurrence (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
Year of death occurrence	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2020	0	0	23	79	12	3	145	473	146	16	8	1	906
2021	2	1	1	2	0	0	13	98	316	443	260	219	1,355
2022	1,646	1,034	425	716	929	888	1,408	1,129	447	254	455	967	10,298
2023	753	232	268	432	633	596	332	158	143	80	na	na	3,627

a. Includes COVID-19 death registrations only. Numbers will differ to disease surveillance systems.
b. Includes all COVID-19 deaths (both doctor and coroner certified) that occurred and were registered by 31 October 2023.
c. All deaths due to COVID-19 in this report have been coded to ICD-10 code U07.1 COVID-19, virus identified; U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified as the underlying cause of death; or U10.9 Multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19.
d. Data is provisional and subject to change.
e. Refer to the methodology for more information regarding the data in this table.

COVID-19 registered deaths by age and sex, 2023 (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
Age (years)	Males	Females
0-29	4	1
30-39	5	7
40-49	10	5
50-59	37	18
60-69	132	87
70-79	400	243
80-89	816	635
90+	521	706

a. Includes COVID-19 death registrations only. Numbers will differ to disease surveillance systems.
b. Includes all COVID-19 deaths (both doctor and coroner certified) that occurred and were registered by 31 October 2023.
c. Deaths due to COVID-19 in this report have an underlying cause of ICD-10 code U07.1 COVID-19, virus identified; U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified as the underlying cause of death; or U10.9 Multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19.
d. Data is provisional and subject to change.
e. Refer to the methodology for more information regarding the data in this table.

Number and proportion of COVID-19 deaths by state of registration, 2023 (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
	COVID-19 deaths (no.)	Proportion of total COVID-19 deaths (%)
NSW	1,316	36.3
Vic	900	24.8
Qld	620	17.1
SA	301	8.3
WA	335	9.2
Tas	95	2.6
NT	9	0.2
ACT	51	1.4
Aus	3,627	100.0

COVID-19 related deaths are where the deceased died with COVID-19 (and it was a significant factor), but it did not directly cause death. There have been 1,180 COVID-19 related deaths in 2023. In all months this year, the number of COVID-19 related deaths has been lower than in 2022.

COVID-19 related deaths by year and month of occurrence (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
Year of death occurrence	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2020	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	5	2	0	0	0	9
2021	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	15	19	25	64
2022	231	208	125	216	298	282	465	446	186	97	138	271	2,963
2023	219	107	112	144	183	187	89	73	42	24	na	na	1180

a. Includes COVID-19 death registrations only. Numbers will differ to disease surveillance systems.
b. Includes all COVID-19 deaths (both doctor and coroner certified) that occurred and were registered by 31 October 2023.
c. COVID-19 related deaths have an associated cause of either ICD-10 code U07.1 COVID-19, virus identified; U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified; or U09 Post COVID-19 condition.
d. Data is provisional and subject to change.
e. Refer to the methodology for more information regarding the data in this table.

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