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Age-specific death rate

Age-specific death rates are the number of deaths (occurred or registered) during the calendar year at a specified age per 1,000 of the estimated resident population of the same age at mid-point of the year (30 June). Pro rata adjustment is made in respect of deaths for which the age of the deceased is not given.

Country of birth

The classification of countries is the Australian Standard Classification of Countries for Social Statistics (ASCCSS). For more detailed information refer to the Australian Standard Classification of Countries for Social Statistics (ASCCSS) (cat. no. 1269.0). Recent political developments in Europe and the former USSR have resulted in a number of changes to the ASCCSS. These changes have affected some categories and are detailed in Revisions 1.02 and 1.03 of the ASCCSS.

Crude death rate

The crude death rate is the number of deaths registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June. For years prior to 1992, the crude death rate was based on the mean estimated resident population for the calendar year.

Death

Death is the permanent disappearance of all evidence of life after birth has taken place. The definition excludes deaths prior to live birth. For the purposes of the Deaths and Causes of Death collections conducted by the ABS, a death refers to any death which occurs in, or en route to Australia and is registered with a State or Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Estimated resident population

The concept of estimated resident population (ERP) links people to a place of usual residence within Australia. Usual residence is that place where each person has lived or intends to live for six months or more in a reference year. The ERP is an estimate of the Australian population obtained by adding to the estimated population at the beginning of each period the components of natural increase (on a usual residence basis) and net overseas migration. For the states and territories, account is also taken of the estimated interstate movements involving a change of usual residence. Estimates of the resident population are based on census counts by place of usual residence, to which are added the estimated net census undercount and Australian residents estimated to have been temporarily overseas at the time of the Census. Overseas visitors in Australia are excluded from this calculation.After each census, estimates for the preceding intercensal period are revised by incorporating an additional adjustment (intercensal discrepancy) to ensure that the total intercensal increase agrees with the difference between the ERPs at the two respective census dates.

Indigenous

Persons who identify themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Indigenous death

The death of a person who is identified as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin on the death information form.

Infant death

An infant death is the death of a live-born child who dies before reaching his/her first birthday.

Infant mortality rate

The number of deaths of children under one year of age in a calendar year per 1,000 live births in the same calendar year.

Intercensal discrepancy

Intercensal discrepancy is the difference between two estimates at 30 June of a census year population, the first based on the latest census and the second arrived at by updating the 30 June estimate of the previous census year with intercensal components of population change which take account of information available from the latest census. It is caused by errors in the start and/or finish population estimates and/or in estimates of births, deaths or migration in the intervening period which cannot be attributed to a particular source.

Life expectancy

Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex might expect to live if the age-specific death rates of the given period continued throughout his/her lifetime.

Life table death rate

The life table death rate represents the annual number of deaths (per 1,000 population) that would occur based on the death rates and population structure of the life table. It is calculated as 1,000/expectation of life at birth.

Marital status

Two separate concepts are measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These are registered marital status and social marital status. They have different personal characteristics and are independent variables with separate classifications. Marital status relates to registered marital status which refers to formally registered marriages or divorces for which the partners hold a certificate. Four categories of marital status are identified: never married, married, widowed and divorced.

Median value

For any distribution the median value (age, duration, interval) is that value which divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value, and half exceeding it. Where the value for a particular record has not been stated, that record is excluded from the calculation.

Natural increase

Excess of births over deaths.

Neonatal death

For neonatal deaths a birthweight and period of gestation criterion apply:

• A neonatal death is the death within 28 days of birth of a child weighing at least 500 grams at delivery (or of at least 22 weeks gestation, if birthweight was unavailable) who after delivery, breathes or shows any evidence of life such as a heartbeat. Applies to data collected prior to 1997; and
• A neonatal death is the death within 28 days of birth of a child weighing at least 400 grams at delivery (or of at least 20 weeks gestation, if birthweight was unavailable) who after delivery, breathes or shows any evidence of life such as a heartbeat. Applies to data collected from 1997 onwards.

• The direct method-this is used when the populations under study are large and the age-specific death rates are reliable. It is the overall death rate that would have prevailed in the standard population if it had experienced at each age the death rates of the population under study; and
• The indirect method-this is used when the populations under study are small and the age-specific death rates are unreliable or not known. It is an adjustment to the crude death rate of the standard population to account for the variation between the actual number of deaths in the population under study and the number of deaths which would have occurred if the population under study had experienced the age-specific death rates of the standard population.

• the population (estimated resident population);
• the mother (birth collection); or
• the deceased (death collection).