Deaths, Australia

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

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Reference period
2023

Key statistics

  • There were 183,131 registered deaths in 2023, a decrease of 7,808 since 2022.
  • The standardised death rate decreased to 5.1 deaths, from 5.5 in 2022.
  • Infant deaths decreased by 47 deaths to 911.
Summary statistics
201320222023
All deaths147,678190,939183,131
Infant deaths1,094958911
Standardised death rate5.45.55.1
Crude death rate6.47.36.9
Infant mortality rate3.63.23.2

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 1 year of age registered during the calendar year per 1,000 live births in the same period.

This publication presents statistics about deaths and mortality rates in the reference year 2023. Information about Causes of death in 2023 are available in Causes of Death, Australia.

National

Deaths registered

  • There were 183,131 deaths registered in 2023, a decrease of 7,808 from 2022 (190,939).
  • There were more male deaths (96,180) than female deaths (86,951), resulting in a sex ratio of 110.6 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.

There were 5,001 deaths caused by COVID-19 in the 2023 reference year (2.7% of all deaths and the 9th leading cause of death). This is a decrease from 2022, when 9,862 deaths due to the virus occurred. For more information on COVID-19 related deaths, see Causes of Death, Australia.

Age and sex distribution

  • In every age group spanning 0 to 84 years, there were more male deaths than there were female deaths.
  • At age 85 to 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 decreased: 

  • to 5.1 deaths per 1,000 standard population, from 5.5 in 2022
  • by 0.3 since 2013, with males showing a decrease of 0.5 and females showing a decrease of 0.2 over the 10-year period.

Crude death rate

Age-specific death rate

States and territories

Deaths registered

  • Most states and territories recorded a decrease in death registrations in 2023 except for Western Australia and South Australia.
  • Over three-quarters (77.2%) 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 territory2013 (no.)2022 (no.)2023 (no.)Change from 2022 to 2023 (no.)
New South Wales50,39662,98059,451-3,529
Victoria35,91647,97845,326-2,652
Queensland27,90138,16036,622-1,538
South Australia12,80415,45515,49944
Western Australia13,41417,29917,475176
Tasmania4,4445,1425,073-69
Northern Territory1,0971,3381,253-85
Australian Capital Territory1,7002,5632,406-157
Australia(a)147,678190,939183,131-7,808
  1. Includes Other Territories. 

Deaths registered by state and territory of usual residence, 2023

This interactive map examines the number of deaths for the 2023 reference year, by State and territory of Usual residence of Australia, based on the boundaries released in the ASGS.

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate was:

  • highest in the Northern Territory (6.7 deaths per 1,000 standard population)
  • lowest in the Australian Capital Territory (4.7).

Over the past 10 years, standardised death rates decreased:

  • the most in the Northern Territory (6.7 deaths from 8.5 in 2013),
  • in Tasmania (5.6 deaths from 6.5 in 2013), New South Wales (5.1 deaths from 5.5), Queensland (5.2 deaths from 5.6), Western Australia (4.9 deaths from 5.3), South Australia (5.3 deaths from 5.5), Victoria (5.0 deaths from 5.1) and the Australian Capital Territory (4.7 deaths from 4.8).
  1. Includes Other Territories.

Infants

Births registered by Indigenous status of the birth, 2023

Deaths registered

Infant deaths are defined as deaths of children aged less than 1 year.

  • There were 911 infant deaths registered (517 boys and 394 girls).
  • This was a 4.9% decrease compared with the number registered in 2022 (958).
  • Over the past 10 years, the number of infant deaths decreased overall from 1,094 in 2013.

Infant mortality rate

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

The infant mortality rate:

  • was 3.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
  • decreased from 2013 (3.6).

 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Derivation of Indigenous status

Over the last two years, the ABS has introduced a number of enhancements to the derivation of Indigenous status. This has led to an increased number of deaths of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people and a corresponding decrease in the number of deaths where the Indigenous status is unknown or not stated. These changes have introduced a break in time series in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander death statistics in NSW (from 2022) and Victoria (from 2023) with a corresponding effect on national data. Caution should be used when interpreting time series data. For more information on this change and the impacts refer to Technical Note: The impact of using two sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in NSW in 2022 and Technical Note: The impact of using multiple sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in 2023 – changes for Victoria and coroner referred deaths.

NSW: In 2022, information from the cause of death process including the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) and coronial information was made available to the ABS by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages as a secondary source for determining the Indigenous status of the deceased.

Vic: In 2023, information from the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death was used by the ABS as a secondary source for determining the Indigenous status of the deceased.

Coroner referred deaths: In 2023, the ABS gained approval from the National Coronial Information System to use the Indigenous status recorded as part of the coronial investigation as a secondary source for determining the Indigenous status of the deceased.

Deaths registered

  • In 2023, there were 5,256 deaths registered where the person was identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, an increase of 171 deaths nationally from 2022.
  • Most states and territories recorded increases except for the Northern Territory (581 deaths from 617 in 2022) and Queensland (1,248 deaths from 1,271 in 2022).
  • New South Wales recorded the largest numerical increase, 1,779 deaths compared with 1,691 in 2022.
  • Victoria recorded the next largest increase (412 deaths, up from 340 in 2022), then South Australia (319 deaths from 275), Tasmania (142 deaths from 124), the Australian Capital Territory (37 deaths from 29) and Western Australia (737 deaths from 733).
Deaths registered by Indigenous status, 2023
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.)
NSW1,779357,53196.81410.259,451
Vic.4120.944,86699480.145,326
Qld1,2483.435,33696.5380.136,622
SA3192.115,15997.8210.115,499
WA7374.216,68495.5540.317,475
Tas.1422.84,91496.9170.35,073
NT58146.467253.6001,253
ACT371.52,36398.260.22,406
Aust.(a)(b)5,2562.9177,53996.93360.2183,131
  1. Includes Other Territories.
  2. 2023 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths is influenced by the use of additional sources of information for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths. For more detail, refer to the Technical Note: The impact of using multiple sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in 2023 – changes for Victoria and for coroner referred deaths.

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 those in the non-Indigenous population.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - 5 state/territory data

Median ages, age-specific death rates, standardised death rates, crude death rates and infant mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are presented for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory only. These 5 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 5 jurisdictions only.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, summary statistics(a)
20132022(b)2023
All deaths2,6414,5874,664
Infant deaths110127132
Standardised death rate(c)(d)8.28.99.4
Crude death rate(c)(d)3.44.64.9
Infant mortality rate(c)(d)6.15.25.4
  1. Includes data for the 5 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. The 2022 increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths is influenced by the use of information from the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) for the first time for deriving the indigenous status of deaths registered in New South Wales. For more detail, refer to the Technical Note: The impact of using two sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in NSW in 2022.
  3. These rates are based on 3-year averages. They are calculated for each calendar year and then averaged.
  4. Rates use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimates and projections based on the 2021 Census. These rates may differ from those previously published.

Median age at death

Age-specific death rate

Standardised death rate

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

  • was 9.4 deaths per 1,000 standard population, up from 8.2 in 2013
  • for males increased to 10.5 from 9.1 10 years ago
  • for females increased to 8.4 from 7.4 over the same period
  • was highest in the Northern Territory at 14.4 and lowest in New South Wales at 8.3.

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

Notes

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Data cubes

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3302.0.

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

Deaths, Year of registration, Summary data, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths, Year of registration, Age at death, Age-specific death rates, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths, Year of registration, Age at death, Sex, Australia

Deaths, Year of occurrence, Age at death, Age-specific death rates, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths, Year of registration, Marital status, Age at death, Sex, Australia

Infant deaths and infant mortality rates, Year of registration, Age at death, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths, Year of registration, Indigenous status, Summary data, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths and infant deaths, Year and month of occurrence, Sex, States, Territories and Australia

Deaths, Year of registration, Indigenous status, Age at death, Sex, Five State/Territory

Infant deaths, Year of occurrence, Age at death, Sex, Australia

Methodology

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.

View full methodology

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