Deaths, Australia

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Statistics about deaths and mortality rates for Australia, states and territories, and sub-state regions

Reference period
2021
Released
29/09/2022

Key statistics

  • There were 171,469 registered deaths in 2021, an increase of 10,169 since 2020.
  • The standardised death rate increased to 5.1 deaths, from 4.9 in 2020.
  • Infant deaths increased by 66 deaths to 1,009.
Summary statistics
201120202021(a)
All deaths146,932161,300171,469
Infant deaths1,1409431,009
Standardised death rate5.74.95.1
Crude death rate6.66.36.7
Infant mortality rate3.83.23.3
  1. All jurisdictions recorded an increase in death registrations in 2021. This follows lower death counts in 2020, after the introduction of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

The standardised death rate (SDR) uses the age distribution of total persons in the Australian population at 30 June 2001 as the standard population. The SDR is expressed as deaths per 1,000 standard population. 

The crude death rate is the number of deaths registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June. 

The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children under one year of age in a specified period per 1,000 live births in the same period.

This publication presents statistics about deaths and mortality rates in the reference year 2021. The ABS will release Causes of Death data for 2021 in October 2022.

National

Deaths registered

  • There were 171,469 deaths registered in 2021, an increase of 10,169 from 2020 (161,300).
  • There were more male deaths (89,401) than female deaths (82,068), resulting in a sex ratio of 108.9 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.
  1. All jurisdictions recorded an increase in death registrations in 2021. This follows lower death counts in 2020, after the introduction of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Age and sex distribution

  • In every age group spanning 0-84 years, there were more male deaths than there were female deaths.

  • At age 85-89 years and onwards, more female deaths were recorded than male deaths.

  1. Excludes deaths for which age was not stated.

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate: 

  • increased to 5.1 deaths per 1,000 standard population, from 4.9 in 2020
  • decreased to 5.1 in 2021 from 5.7 in 2011, with both males and females showing a similar decrease.
  1. All jurisdictions recorded an increase in death registrations in 2021. This follows lower death counts in 2020, after the introduction of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Crude death rate

Age-specific death rate

States and territories

Deaths registered

Over three-quarters (77.5%) of deaths registered were to usual residents of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland combined.

Deaths registered by state and territory of usual residence
State or territory2011 (no.)2020 (no.)2021 (no.)2021 (%)
New South Wales50,66152,48556,52533.0
Victoria36,55241,09342,48624.8
Queensland27,41431,36733,85819.7
South Australia12,66513,60714,4948.5
Western Australia12,72414,99315,8919.3
Tasmania4,2454,4354,7692.8
Northern Territory9641,1411,2110.7
Australian Capital Territory1,7002,1622,2071.3
Australia(a)(b)146,932161,300171,469100.0
  1. All jurisdictions recorded an increase in death registrations in 2021. This follows lower death counts in 2020, after the introduction of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. 
  2. Includes Other Territories. 

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate was:

  • highest in the Northern Territory (7.2 deaths per 1,000 standard population), followed by Tasmania (5.6)
  • lowest in the Australian Capital Territory (4.6).

Over the past ten years, standardised death rates:

  • decreased in all states and territories
  • decreased the most in both Tasmania (5.6 deaths from 6.4 in 2011) and the Northern Territory (7.2 deaths from 8.0 in 2011), then New South Wales (5.1 deaths from 5.8 in 2011) and Victoria (4.9 deaths from 5.6 in 2011).

(a) Includes Other Territories

Infants

Births registered by Indigenous status of the birth

Deaths registered

Infant deaths are defined as deaths of children aged less than one year.

  • There were 1,009 infant deaths registered (559 boys and 450 girls).
  • This was a 7.0% increase compared with the number registered in 2020 (943).
  • Over the past ten years, the number of infant deaths decreased overall from 1,140 in 2011.

Infant mortality rate

Australia has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

The infant mortality rate was:

  • 3.3 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
  • similar to the rate in 2020 (3.2) and decreased from 2011 (3.8).

 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Deaths registered

  • In 2021 there were 4,081 deaths registered where the person was identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
  • This represents an increase of 18 deaths nationally from 2020.
  • New South Wales recorded the largest increase, 1,206 deaths compared with 1,155 in 2020.
  • The Northern Territory recorded the next largest increase with 545 deaths, up from 507 in 2020.
  • The number of deaths in Victoria decreased from 341 deaths in 2020, to 256 deaths, and Western Australia's deaths decreased from 626 deaths in 2020 to 604 deaths.
Deaths by Indigenous status
State or territory of usual residenceAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (no.)Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (%)Non-Indigenous (no.)Non-Indigenous (%)Not stated (no.)Not stated (%)Total (no.)
NSW1,2062.154,86897.14510.856,525
Vic.2560.641,78598.44451.042,486
Qld1,1013.332,67996.5780.233,858
SA2401.714,23498.2200.114,494
WA6043.815,21195.7760.515,891
Tas.1022.14,64997.5180.44,769
NT54545.066554.940.31,211
ACT251.12,18098.840.22,207
Aust.(a)4,0812.4166,28297.01,1060.6171,469
  1. Includes Other Territories.

Age and sex distribution

Deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more widely spread across younger age groups, whereas deaths of non-Indigenous people are concentrated in the older age groups. This reflects higher birth rates and lower life expectancy in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population compared with that in the non-Indigenous population.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people five state/territory data

Median ages, age-specific death rates, standardised death rates and infant mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are included in this commentary for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory only. These five jurisdictions have been included as they have sufficient levels of identification and sufficient numbers of deaths to support mortality analysis. The total therefore represents the total for these five jurisdictions only.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, summary statistics(a)
201120202021
All deaths2,3873,6113,696
Infant deaths10510390
Standardised death rate(b)9.59.49.5
Crude death rate(b)3.94.64.7
Infant mortality rate(b)6.95.45.2
  1. Includes data for the five states and territories - New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Data for Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (based on state or territory of usual residence) are excluded due to the small numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.
  2. These rates are based on three-year averages. They are calculated for each calendar year and then averaged.

Median age at death

Age-specific death rate

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

  • was 9.5 deaths per 1,000 standard population, the same as 10 years ago
  • for males fell to 10.6 from 10.8 10 years ago
  • for females remained the same at 8.4 deaths over the same period
  • was highest in the Northern Territory at 12.9 and lowest in New South Wales at 7.8.

Infant mortality rate

Deaths by year of registration and year of occurrence

While the interval between the occurrence and registration of deaths is often longer for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than for the non-Indigenous population, there is normally little difference between the number of deaths registered and the number that occurred in a given year. The number of deaths not registered in the year that they occurred are balanced by the number of deaths that occurred in the previous years but were subsequently registered. Data for the latest year will be underestimated if reported on a year of occurrence basis. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by year of registration

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by year of occurrence

Data downloads

Table 1: Deaths, Country of birth, Australia - 2021

Table 2: Median age at death, Year of occurrence, States and territories, 2011 to 2021

Table 3: Deaths, Summary, Statistical Area Level 4 - 2011 to 2021

Table 4: Deaths, Summary, Statistical Area Level 2 - 2011 to 2021

Table 5: Deaths, Summary, Local Government Areas - 2011 to 2021

Table 6: Deaths, Summary, Remoteness Areas - 2011 to 2021

Table 7: Deaths, Indigenous status, Summary, Remoteness Areas, Australia - 2011 to 2021

All data cubes

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3302.0.

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