Provisional Mortality Statistics

Deaths for 2024 will have two comparisons points - they will be compared to deaths occurring in 2023 and 2022. 

This publication does not provide official estimates of excess mortality. The ABS publishes official excess mortality estimates in the report ‘Measuring Australia’s excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2023’.

Age-standardised death rates can be accessed via the data downloads tab in this publication. 

Counts of deaths for 2015-2023 are included in the historical data cubes of the data downloads section of this report. Customised datasets are able to be created from these data cubes. 

The ABS publishes two regular reports that provide preliminary information on mortality - Provisional Mortality Statistics and Deaths due to Selected Acute Respiratory Infections. These reports provide information on different time periods and serve different purposes.

Provisional Mortality Statistics focus on monitoring patterns of mortality (by all-causes and specified leading causes of death) and highlight any changes potentially associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data must be sufficiently complete to detect such changes, and as such these reports are only released once the majority of deaths that occurred in a particular period have been registered and reported.

Deaths due to Acute respiratory infections in Australia articles focus on all deaths registered and reported with COVID-19, influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) written on the death certificate up until a specified time. These articles include important information about these acute respiratory infection certified deaths, including demographic details. While it is recognised data will be incomplete, it can still indicate emerging trends or changes among these deaths. The most recent article on deaths due to these selected acute respiratory disease, that occurred and were registered up until 31 March 2024 can be accessed through the articles link on this page.

For all deaths:

• In 2024, there were 28,402 deaths that occurred by 29 February and were registered by 30 April. This is 561 deaths (2.0%) more than in 2023, but 1,966 (6.5%) fewer than in 2022.
• 13,544 deaths occurred in February 2024. This is 516 deaths (4.0%) more than in 2023, but 549 (3.9%) fewer than in 2022. Allowing for the leap year, the 467 deaths per day in February 2024 was comparable to 2023 (465 deaths) but below 2022 (503).
• 11,831 of the deaths occurring in February 2024 were doctor certified and 1,713 were coroner referred.

In April 2024, the ABS received 14,881 death registrations. Of these, 14,679 deaths occurred in 2024, 173 occurred in 2023 and the remaining 29 occurred in 2022 or earlier years.

Deaths are presented by counts only. Counts of death do not account for changes in population. See data downloads for weekly and monthly age-standardised death rate calculations. 

The following analysis is based only on doctor certified deaths (i.e. coroner referred deaths are not included). Any changes in patterns of coroner referral could affect counts of doctor certified deaths. Some conditions have higher coroner referral rates (ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and to a lesser extent, respiratory diseases and diabetes) so counts for those conditions would be more likely to be affected by such changes.

• In February 2024 there were 268 deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor. This is 19.1% higher than the 225 deaths in February 2023 but 73.2% fewer than the 1,001 deaths in February 2022. In January and February 2024 there have been 694 deaths from COVID-19, below the 944 deaths for the same period in 2023 and the 2,577 deaths in 2022.
• As the pandemic has progressed the number of people dying 'with' COVID-19 has increased. In February 2024 there were 94 people who died with COVID-19 being identified (via death certificates) as a contributing factor to their death (ie. COVID-19 was certified on the death certificate but it was not the underlying cause of death).

• Deaths due to respiratory diseases in February 2024 were higher than in 2023 (16.4%) and 2022 (13.7%). Deaths from influenza, pneumonia and chronic lower respiratory diseases were all higher in February 2024 than 2023 or 2022. The 25 influenza deaths were the highest number of deaths in February since at least 1968. The second highest year of deaths was 2019 (22 deaths).
• Deaths due to ischaemic heart disease in February 2024 were 4.5% below 2023 and 14.8% lower than 2022.
• Deaths due to diabetes in February 2024 were 18.1% fewer than 2023 and 9.8% fewer than 2022.
• Deaths due to cancer in February 2024 were 6.2% higher than in 2023 and 7.3% higher than in 2022.

The ABS codes an underlying cause of death (UCOD) for all deaths in the national mortality dataset. The underlying cause of death is defined as the disease, condition or external event that started the chain of events leading to death. International coding rules are applied to disease and conditions appearing on the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to assign the UCOD. A disease or condition must be certified on the MCCD to be coded by the ABS. If COVID-19, influenza or RSV is listed as the underlying cause of death, the death is considered to be been caused by the virus. 

The following table shows the number of deaths due to acute respiratory diseases since 2022.

• The number of deaths from COVID-19 in February 2024 (275) is slightly higher than the number of deaths in February 2023 (233) but much lower than in February 2022 (1,034).
• The number of deaths due to influenza in February 2024 is the highest February number of deaths since the beginning of series in 1968, and follows a higher than usual number of influenza deaths in January 2024.

The table below shows the number of acute-respiratory associated deaths where the person has died “with” the virus (a person has died from another cause but the viral illness contributed to death).

• There are more deaths "from" COVID-19 and Influenza than "with" these conditions. For RSV, there are substantially more people who died "with" RSV than "from" RSV.
• There have been more deaths "with" RSV between January and March 2024 than in 2022 or 2023. 
• There have been fewer deaths "with" COVID-19 in each month of 2024 than in the corresponding month in 2022 or 2023.

This release previously used catalogue number 3303.0.55.004