Life tables

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

Reference period
2017 - 2019
Released
4/11/2020

Key statistics

  • Life expectancy at birth was 80.9 years for males and 85.0 years for females in 2017-19
  • Victoria (81.8 years) had the highest male life expectancy
  • Australian Capital Territory (85.6 years) had the highest female life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth estimates represent the average number of years that a newborn baby could expect to live, assuming current age-specific death rates are experienced through his/her lifetime.

National

In recent years, life expectancy for males has improved at a faster rate than that for females

  • Over the past decade, life expectancy for males increased by 1.6 years and females by 1.1 years
  • Around 50 years ago (1965-1967), life expectancy was 67.6 years for males and 74.2 years for females, a gap of 6.6 years
  • The gap has now narrowed to 4.1 years in 2017-19
     

Reasons for improvements in life expectancy include:

  • improved health services
  • safer working environments
  • medical and technological advances

States and territories

Life expectancy at birth was:

  • highest for males in Victoria (81.8 years)
  • highest for females in the Australian Capital Territory (85.6 years)
  • lowest for both males (75.5 years) and females (80.6 years) in the Northern Territory, 5.4 years and 4.4 years lower than for Australian males and females overall
Life expectancy at birth by state and territory of usual residence
State or territory2007-2009, Males2007-2009, Females2017-2019, Males2017-2019, FemalesChange over 10 years, MalesChange over 10 years, Females
NSW79.584.380.785.01.20.7
Vic.79.784.181.885.52.11.4
Qld79.183.880.384.81.21.0
SA79.383.980.484.71.10.8
WA79.584.180.985.41.41.3
Tas.77.982.279.583.61.61.4
NT73.379.075.580.62.21.6
ACT80.584.381.685.61.11.3
Aust.(a)79.383.980.985.01.61.1
  1. Includes Other Territories.

Regions

Life expectancy at birth:

  • varied between Statistical Area Level 4s (SA4s) by 13.2 years for males and 11.2 years for females
  • was generally higher in capital city SA4s than remote SA4s
  • was highest for both males and females in Sydney - North Sydney and Hornsby (85.4 years and 87.8 years)
  • was lowest for both males and females in Northern Territory - Outback (72.2 years and 76.6 years)

International comparison

  • Australia has the sixth highest male and female combined life expectancy in the world
  • Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain and Italy have higher life expectancies than Australia
  • Australia's male life expectancy ranked fifth and female eighth in the world
Life expectancy at birth, top 10 countries in the world(a), United Nations 2018
CountryPersonsMalesFemales
Japan84.47 (rank 1)81.33 (rank 4)87.51 (rank 1)
Switzerland83.63 (rank 2)81.69 (rank 1)85.47 (rank 5)
Singapore83.46 (rank 3)81.34 (rank 2)85.58 (rank 4)
Spain83.43 (rank 4)80.69 (rank 10)86.12 (rank 2)
Italy83.35 (rank 5)81.13 (rank 7)85.41 (rank 7)
Australia83.28 (rank 6)81.31 (rank 5)85.27 (rank 8)
Channel Islands82.93 (rank 7)80.97 (rank 8)84.8 (rank 9)
Iceland82.86 (rank 8)81.34 (rank 2)84.37 (rank 15)
Republic of Korea82.85 (rank 9)79.72 (rank 18)85.79 (rank 3)
Israel82.82 (rank 10)81.14 (rank 6)84.39 (rank 14)


For both males and females, Australia has a higher life expectancy than similar countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Male life expectancy at birth and at age 65 for selected countries

Female life expectancy at birth and at age 65 for selected countries

Data downloads

Table 1: Life tables, states, territories and Australia - 2017-2019

Table 2: Life tables, statistical area level 4 - 2010-2012 to 2017-2019

All data cubes

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3302.0.55.001

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