Life expectancy in Australia has fallen for the second year in a row, but is still the fourth highest in the world.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed on Friday that life expectancy for men had fallen by 0.1 years to 81.1 years for males, and 0.2 years to 85.1 years for females in the 2021-23 period, and highlighted the impact of Covid-19.
“The years 2021-2023 saw the highest number of Covid-19 deaths with 15,982 in Australia, which was up by 4,100 from 2020-2022,” said ABS head of demography Beidar Cho.
“As a result, life expectancy has fallen by 0.1 years for men and 0.2 years for women over this period.
“Despite this decrease, Australians still have a higher life expectancy than many comparable countries, like New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada.”
The ABS noted that in 2022 “the number of deaths increased by almost 20,000 deaths from 2021, with almost half of these being due to Covid-19. In 2023, 5,001 deaths were registered that were due to COVID-19, a decrease from 9,862 deaths in 2022”.
The effects of lockdowns on mortality rates and/or deaths and injuries from Covid-19 vaccine products were not mentioned by the ABS, which also changed the way it presented excess mortality data in April this year.
However, Australia’s life expectancy at birth of 83.2 is the fourth highest in the world after Japan, Switzerland and South Korea, and equal with Spain. Next are Sweden, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, and Ireland.
“Today, a 60-year-old Australian man can expect to live another 24.2 years, and a woman another 27.1 years. This is longer than life expectancy at birth, as 60-year-olds have already survived the first several decades of life,” the ABS said.
“The Australian Capital Territory had the highest male life expectancy of 81.7 years, followed by Western Australia (81.6 years) and Victoria (81.5 years). The Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia had the highest female life expectancy (85.7 years), followed by Victoria (85.4 years) and New South Wales (85.2 years).
“The Northern Territory had the lowest life expectancy for both men (76.4 years) and women (80.4 years). It, however, saw the largest rise in male and female life expectancies from 2013-2023, with 1.5 years and 1.2 years respectively.”
Males have the highest life expectancy in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury regions (85.5 years), and the highest for females in nearby North Sydney and Hornsby (88.2 years).
Northern Territory – Outback has the lowest life expectancy for both males and females, 71.9 and 75.5 years respectively.
