Provisional Mortality Statistics

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Provisional deaths data for measuring changes in patterns of mortality

Reference period
Jan - Feb 2024
Released
31/05/2024

Key statistics

  • There were 13,544 deaths in February 2024, 4.0% above 2023 but 3.9% below 2022. Due to the leap year, the 467 deaths per day in February 2024 was comparable to 2023 (465).
  • Deaths involving influenza and RSV were higher than previous years in 2024 but remain much lower than deaths due to COVID-19.

From April 2024 there are changes in how provisional mortality data is presented. These changes have been outlined in previous publications. April 2024 was selected as the time frame to implement changes as it coincides with the beginning of the reporting period for deaths occurring in 2024. The format of these reports will take account of the following factors.  

  • Deaths will no longer be compared to a "baseline average". The ABS now releases official Excess mortality estimates every six months. These estimates are modelled from a historical baseline accounting for age structure and population. With this report available, the baseline constructed from an average count of deaths which was previously included in the Provisional Mortality Report is no longer necessary. The latest excess mortality estimates are available in the article ‘Measuring Australia’s excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2023’, published on 18 December. 
  • Mortality from influenza and respiratory syncytial virus is analysed alongside COVID-19. The Director-General of the World Health Organization called an end to the emergency phase of the pandemic in May 2023. In line with this, the information presented can be changed to reflect changing data needs. As the pandemic has progressed it is important to consider not only the impact of COVID-19 alone, but also that of other active acute respiratory infections. This additional information is included in the attached article: 'Deaths due to Acute respiratory infections in Australia - 2022 - March 2024'.

Previous year comparisons

Deaths for 2024 will have two comparisons points - they will be compared to deaths occurring in 2023 and 2022. 

This publication does not provide official estimates of excess mortality. The ABS publishes official excess mortality estimates in the report Measuring Australia’s excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2023’.

Age-standardised death rates can be accessed via the data downloads tab in this publication. 

Counts of deaths for 2015-2023 are included in the historical data cubes of the data downloads section of this report. Customised datasets are able to be created from these data cubes. 

Provisional mortality data

The ABS publishes two regular reports that provide preliminary information on mortality - Provisional Mortality Statistics and Deaths due to Selected Acute Respiratory Infections. These reports provide information on different time periods and serve different purposes.

Provisional Mortality Statistics focus on monitoring patterns of mortality (by all-causes and specified leading causes of death) and highlight any changes potentially associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data must be sufficiently complete to detect such changes, and as such these reports are only released once the majority of deaths that occurred in a particular period have been registered and reported.

Deaths due to Acute respiratory infections in Australia articles focus on all deaths registered and reported with COVID-19, influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) written on the death certificate up until a specified time. These articles include important information about these acute respiratory infection certified deaths, including demographic details. While it is recognised data will be incomplete, it can still indicate emerging trends or changes among these deaths. The most recent article on deaths due to these selected acute respiratory disease, that occurred and were registered up until 31 March 2024 can be accessed through the articles link on this page.

Australian deaths by week

All-cause deaths

For all deaths:

  • In 2024, there were 28,402 deaths that occurred by 29 February and were registered by 30 April. This is 561 deaths (2.0%) more than in 2023, but 1,966 (6.5%) fewer than in 2022.
  • 13,544 deaths occurred in February 2024. This is 516 deaths (4.0%) more than in 2023, but 549 (3.9%) fewer than in 2022. Allowing for the leap year, the 467 deaths per day in February 2024 was comparable to 2023 (465 deaths) but below 2022 (503).
  • 11,831 of the deaths occurring in February 2024 were doctor certified and 1,713 were coroner referred.

In April 2024, the ABS received 14,881 death registrations. Of these, 14,679 deaths occurred in 2024, 173 occurred in 2023 and the remaining 29 occurred in 2022 or earlier years.

Deaths are presented by counts only. Counts of death do not account for changes in population. See data downloads for weekly and monthly age-standardised death rate calculations. 

  1. Data is by occurrence.
  2. Data is provisional and subject to change.
  3. 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, 8 Jan 2023 and 7 Jan 2024.

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 would be more likely to be affected by such changes.

COVID-19

  • In February 2024 there were 268 deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor. This is 19.1% higher than the 225 deaths in February 2023 but 73.2% fewer than the 1,001 deaths in February 2022. In January and February 2024 there have been 694 deaths from COVID-19, below the 944 deaths for the same period in 2023 and the 2,577 deaths in 2022.
  • As the pandemic has progressed the number of people dying 'with' COVID-19 has increased. In February 2024 there were 94 people who died with COVID-19 being identified (via death certificates) 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 respiratory diseases in February 2024 were higher than in 2023 (16.4%) and 2022 (13.7%). Deaths from influenza, pneumonia and chronic lower respiratory diseases were all higher in February 2024 than 2023 or 2022. The 25 influenza deaths were the highest number of deaths in February since at least 1968. The second highest year of deaths was 2019 (22 deaths).
  • Deaths due to ischaemic heart disease in February 2024 were 4.5% below 2023 and 14.8% lower than 2022.
  • Deaths due to diabetes in February 2024 were 18.1% fewer than 2023 and 9.8% fewer than 2022.
  • Deaths due to cancer in February 2024 were 6.2% higher than in 2023 and 7.3% higher than in 2022.
Doctor certified deaths by cause, 2024, 2023, 2022 (a)(b)
   FebruaryJanuary - February
   202420232022202420232022
Cancer4,0993,8583,8208,3068,0138,087
Dementia1,1911,1841,3502,5492,4942,836
Respiratory diseases1,0388929132,1651,9251,922
 Chronic lower respiratory diseases5634965201,1701,0641,104
 Influenza and pneumonia187128142395297301
  Pneumonia162123142343287300
Ischaemic heart disease8939351,0481,9141,9702,277
Other cardiac conditions7037066471,5431,4901,433
Cerebrovascular diseases6196507021,3141,3621,443
Diabetes357436396780877903
COVID-192682251,0016949442,577

a. Only doctor certified deaths are included.
b. Data is by date of occurrence.

Deaths due to acute respiratory infections

The ABS codes an underlying cause of death (UCOD) for all deaths in the national mortality dataset. The underlying cause of death is defined as the disease, condition or external event that started the chain of events leading to death. International coding rules are applied to disease and conditions appearing on the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to assign the UCOD. A disease or condition must be certified on the MCCD to be coded by the ABS. If COVID-19, influenza or RSV is listed as the underlying cause of death, the death is considered to be been caused by the virus. 

The following table shows the number of deaths due to acute respiratory diseases since 2022.

  • The number of deaths from COVID-19 in February 2024 (275) is slightly higher than the number of deaths in February 2023 (233) but much lower than in February 2022 (1,034).
  • The number of deaths due to influenza in February 2024 is the highest February number of deaths since the beginning of series in 1968, and follows a higher than usual number of influenza deaths in January 2024.
Deaths due to acute respiratory infections by month, 2022-2024
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAll
2022 - COVID-191,6461,0344257169298901,4091,13044725445696910,305
2022 - Influenzanp00np511665717npnpnp5311
2022 - RSVnp000np10131586npnp60
2023 - COVID-197532332704346356003361621552034023874,570
2023 - Influenza75112646711043429413234440
2023 - RSVnpnpnpnp813191991265100
2024 - COVID-1943627525098nananananananana1,059
2024 - Influenza27251916nananananananana87
2024 - RSVnpnp711nananananananana24

a. Includes acute respiratory infection death registrations only. Numbers will differ to disease surveillance systems.
b. Includes all deaths (both doctor and coroner certified) that occurred and were registered by 30 April 2024.
c. All deaths due to COVID-19 in this report have been coded to ICD-10 codes U07.1-U07.2, U10.9. All deaths due to influenza have been coded to J09-J11. All deaths due to RSV have been coded to J12.1, J205, J21.0, B34.8 with B97.4.
d. Data is provisional and subject to change.
e. Refer to the methodology for more information regarding the data in this table.
f. np refers to data that is not publishable. na refers to data that is not available.

Deaths with contributing acute respiratory infections by month

The table below shows the number of acute-respiratory associated deaths where the person has died “with” the virus (a person has died from another cause but the viral illness contributed to death).

  • There are more deaths "from" COVID-19 and Influenza than "with" these conditions. For RSV, there are substantially more people who died "with" RSV than "from" RSV.
  • There have been more deaths "with" RSV between January and March 2024 than in 2022 or 2023. 
  • There have been fewer deaths "with" COVID-19 in each month of 2024 than in the corresponding month in 2022 or 2023.
Deaths with acute respiratory infections by month, 2022-2024
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAll
2022 - COVID-19231211126216299284469450186981412762,987
2022 - Influenzanp00010532913npnpnpnp114
2022 - RSVnpnp0np63141402815115181
2023 - COVID-1922310811314818819193765154981331,476
2023 - Influenza70np9616351391210np125
2023 - RSVnp582027474846252279265
2024 - COVID-19137946833nananananananana332
2024 - Influenza687npnananananananana24
2024 - RSV812168nananananananana44

a. Includes acute respiratory infection death registrations only. Numbers will differ to disease surveillance systems.
b. Includes all deaths (both doctor and coroner certified) that occurred and were registered by 30 April 2024.
c. All deaths due to COVID-19 in this report have been coded to ICD-10 codes U07.1-U07.2, U10.9. All deaths due to influenza have been coded to J09-J11. All deaths due to RSV have been coded to J12.1, J205, J21.0, B97.4 with ucod other than B34.8.
d. Data is provisional and subject to change.
e. Refer to the methodology for more information regarding the data in this table.
f. np refers to data that is not publishable. na refers to data that is not available.

Data downloads

Provisional Mortality Statistics, Jan - Feb 2024

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3303.0.55.004

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