Life expectancy

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Statistics about life tables and life expectancy at birth estimates for Australia, states and territories and sub-state regions.

Reference period

2020 - 2022

Released

8/11/2023

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Key statistics

Life expectancy at birth was 81.2 years for males and 85.3 years for females in 2020-2022, a decrease of 0.1 years for both from the previous year (2019-2021)
Life expectancy was highest in the Australian Capital Territory for both males (82.2 years) and females (86.0 years)
Life expectancy was lowest in the Northern Territory for both males (76.2 years) and females (80.7 years).

All previous editions of this release are titled 'Life tables'.

Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex could be expected to live, assuming current age-sex specific death rates are experienced throughout their lifetime.

This release presents life expectancy estimates based on the occurrence of deaths in the 2020-2022 period, making it the first to span all three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Australia recorded a lower than expected death rate as public health measures put in place to restrict the spread of COVID-19 also resulted in a reduction of deaths across a number of other causes. In 2021, the death rate increased but was still lower than pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, Australia's pattern of mortality differed to that of the first two years of the pandemic and the number of deaths increased by almost 20,000 deaths from 2021, with almost 10,000 of these being due to COVID-19.

National

Life expectancy decreased in 2020-2022 for the first time since the mid 1990's.

Life expectancy at birth for males was 81.2 years and 85.3 years for females, a decrease of 0.1 years for both.
Over the past decade, life expectancy increased by 1.3 years for males and 1.0 years for females.
The gap in life expectancy between males and females is 4.1 years.
Around 30 years ago (1992), life expectancy at birth was 74.5 years for males and 80.4 years for females, a gap of 5.9 years.

Life expectancy at birth, 1992 to 2020-2022
Year	Males	Females
1992	74.5	80.4
1993	75	80.9
1994	75	80.9
1993-1995	75	80.8
1994-1996	75.2	81.1
1995-1997	75.6	81.3
1996-1998	75.9	81.5
1997-1999	76.2	81.8
1998-2000	76.6	82
1999-2001	77	82.4
2000-2002	77.4	82.6
2001-2003	77.8	82.8
2002-2004	78.1	83
2003-2005	78.5	83.3
2004-2006	78.7	83.5
2005-2007	79	83.7
2006-2008	79.2	83.7
2007-2009	79.3	83.9
2008-2010	79.5	84
2009-2011	79.7	84.2
2010-2012	79.9	84.3
2011-2013	80.1	84.3
2012-2014	80.3	84.4
2013-2015	80.4	84.5
2014-2016	80.4	84.6
2015-2017	80.5	84.6
2016-2018	80.7	84.9
2017-2019	80.9	85
2018-2020	81.2	85.3
2019-2021	81.3	85.4
2020-2022	81.2	85.3

Life expectancy at birth, 1992 to 2020-2022

["Year","Males","Females"]

[["1992","1993","1994","1993-1995","1994-1996","1995-1997","1996-1998","1997-1999","1998-2000","1999-2001","2000-2002","2001-2003","2002-2004","2003-2005","2004-2006","2005-2007","2006-2008","2007-2009","2008-2010","2009-2011","2010-2012","2011-2013","2012-2014","2013-2015","2014-2016","2015-2017","2016-2018","2017-2019","2018-2020","2019-2021","2020-2022"],[[74.5],[75],[75],[75],[75.200000000000003],[75.599999999999994],[75.900000000000006],[76.200000000000003],[76.599999999999994],[77],[77.400000000000006],[77.799999999999997],[78.099999999999994],[78.5],[78.700000000000003],[79],[79.200000000000003],[79.299999999999997],[79.5],[79.700000000000003],[79.900000000000006],[80.099999999999994],[80.299999999999997],[80.400000000000006],[80.400000000000006],[80.5],[80.700000000000003],[80.900000000000006],[81.200000000000003],[81.299999999999997],[81.200000000000003]],[[80.400000000000006],[80.900000000000006],[80.900000000000006],[80.799999999999997],[81.099999999999994],[81.299999999999997],[81.5],[81.799999999999997],[82],[82.400000000000006],[82.599999999999994],[82.799999999999997],[83],[83.299999999999997],[83.5],[83.700000000000003],[83.700000000000003],[83.900000000000006],[84],[84.200000000000003],[84.299999999999997],[84.299999999999997],[84.400000000000006],[84.5],[84.599999999999994],[84.599999999999994],[84.900000000000006],[85],[85.299999999999997],[85.400000000000006],[85.299999999999997]]]

[]

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States and territories

Life expectancy at birth:

was highest for both males (82.2 years) and females (86.0 years) in the Australian Capital Territory
was lowest for both males (76.2 years) and females (80.7 years) in the Northern Territory, 5.0 years and 4.6 years lower than for Australian males and females.
decreased across all states and territories for females
decreased across most states and territories for males, except in South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania which recorded no change.

Life expectancy at birth, males
State or territory	2010-2012	2019-2021	2020-2022
NSW	79.9	81.4	81.3
Vic.	80.5	81.7	81.6
Qld	79.5	80.9	80.7
SA	79.8	81	81
WA	80.1	81.7	81.7
Tas.	78.7	80.3	80.3
NT	74.7	76.3	76.2
ACT	81.2	82.7	82.2
Australia(a)	79.9	81.3	81.2

Life expectancy at birth, males

["State or territory","2010-2012","2019-2021","2020-2022"]

[["NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT","Australia(a)"],[[79.900000000000006],[80.5],[79.5],[79.799999999999997],[80.099999999999994],[78.700000000000003],[74.700000000000003],[81.200000000000003],[79.900000000000006]],[[81.400000000000006],[81.700000000000003],[80.900000000000006],[81],[81.700000000000003],[80.299999999999997],[76.299999999999997],[82.700000000000003],[81.299999999999997]],[[81.299999999999997],[81.599999999999994],[80.700000000000003],[81],[81.700000000000003],[80.299999999999997],[76.200000000000003],[82.200000000000003],[81.200000000000003]]]

[]

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[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"Age (years)","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"(years)","table_units":"","axis_min":"50","axis_max":null,"tick_interval":null,"precision":"-1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

Includes Other Territories

Life expectancy at birth, females
State or territory	2010-2012	2019-2021	2020-2022
NSW	84.2	85.4	85.3
Vic.	84.5	85.7	85.5
Qld	84	85.1	85
SA	84.2	85.3	85.1
WA	84.8	85.9	85.8
Tas.	82.6	84.4	84.3
NT	80	81	80.7
ACT	85.1	86.3	86
Australia(a)	84.3	85.4	85.3

Life expectancy at birth, females

["State or territory","2010-2012","2019-2021","2020-2022"]

[["NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT","Australia(a)"],[[84.200000000000003],[84.5],[84],[84.200000000000003],[84.799999999999997],[82.599999999999994],[80],[85.099999999999994],[84.299999999999997]],[[85.400000000000006],[85.700000000000003],[85.099999999999994],[85.299999999999997],[85.900000000000006],[84.400000000000006],[81],[86.299999999999997],[85.400000000000006]],[[85.299999999999997],[85.5],[85],[85.099999999999994],[85.799999999999997],[84.299999999999997],[80.700000000000003],[86],[85.299999999999997]]]

[]

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[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"Age (years)","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"(years)","table_units":"","axis_min":"50","axis_max":null,"tick_interval":null,"precision":"-1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

Includes Other Territories

Regions

Life expectancy at birth was:

generally higher in capital city SA4s than remote SA4s
highest for males in Sydney - Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury (85.7 years)
highest for females in Sydney - North Sydney and Hornsby (88.2 years)
lowest for both males and females in Northern Territory - Outback (71.6 years and 75.8 years).

International comparison

Based on United Nations estimates:

Australia has the third highest life expectancy in the world
Monaco and Japan have higher life expectancies than Australia
Australia's male life expectancy ranked second, and female sixth, in the world.

Top 20 countries for life expectancy in the world(a), United Nations, 2021
Country	Persons		Males		Females
	years	rank	years	rank	years	rank
Monaco	85.95	1	84.34	1	87.68	2
Japan	84.78	2	81.8	4	87.73	1
Australia	84.53	3	83.17	2	85.84	6
Switzerland	83.99	4	82	3	85.9	5
Malta	83.78	5	81.44	6	86.11	4
Republic of Korea	83.7	6	80.39	15	86.76	3
Liechtenstein	83.26	7	81.1	8	85.35	9
Norway	83.23	8	81.56	5	84.88	13
Spain	83.01	9	80.21	17	85.77	7
Sweden	82.98	10	81.08	9	84.91	12
Italy	82.85	11	80.52	13	85.1	10
Singapore	82.75	12	80.64	10	84.93	11
Iceland	82.68	13	81.21	7	84.18	22
Canada	82.66	14	80.62	11	84.67	16
Luxembourg	82.63	15	80.45	14	84.81	14
France	82.5	16	79.43	22	85.49	8
New Zealand	82.45	17	80.58	12	84.32	19
Israel	82.26	18	80.15	18	84.3	21
Finland	82.04	19	79.35	23	84.72	15
Ireland	82	20	80.25	16	83.77	26

a. Based on life expectancy for persons.

Source: For all countries, see United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022, Online Edition

Data downloads

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Data cubes

Data files

Table 1: Life tables, states, territories and Australia - 2020-2022
Download xlsx [195.58 KB]
Table 2: Life expectancy, Statistical Areas Level 4 - 2015-2017 to 2020-2022
Download xlsx [56.61 KB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3302.0.55.001

Methodology

Life expectancy methodology, 2020 - 2022

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APA

Citation

Life expectancy

APA

Citation

Key statistics

National

States and territories

Regions

International comparison

Data downloads

Data cubes

Table 1: Life tables, states, territories and Australia - 2020-2022

Table 2: Life expectancy, Statistical Areas Level 4 - 2015-2017 to 2020-2022

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

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APA

Life expectancy

APA

Key statistics

National

States and territories

Regions

International comparison

Data downloads

Data cubes

Table 1: Life tables, states, territories and Australia - 2020-2022

Table 2: Life expectancy, Statistical Areas Level 4 - 2015-2017 to 2020-2022

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

Media releases

COVID-19 deaths stall life expectancy increases

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Microdata and TableBuilder