ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER DEATHS


DEATHS OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER AUSTRALIANS

There were 3,250 deaths registered in Australia in 2017 where the deceased person was recorded as being Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or both (see table 1.4). For detailed data, see ABS.Stat Datasets - Deaths, Year of registration, Indigenous status, Summary data, Sex, States, Territories and Australia and ABS.Stat Datasets - Deaths, Year of registration, Indigenous status, Age at death, Sex, Five State/Territory, from the Downloads tab.

1.4 DEATHS, Indigenous status - 2017
State or territory of usual residence	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander			Non-Indigenous		Not stated		Total
		no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.
NSW		857	1.6	51 330	97.3	591	1.1	52 778
Vic.		186	0.5	39 463	99.2	142	0.4	39 791
Qld		897	2.8	30 605	97.0	53	0.2	31 555
SA		222	1.6	13 807	98.3	23	0.2	14 052
WA		508	3.5	13 875	95.7	111	0.8	14 494
Tas.		52	1.1	4 716	98.7	12	0.3	4 780
NT		504	45.6	600	54.2	4	0.4	1 106
ACT		22	0.9	2 279	98.2	19	0.8	2 320
Aust.(a)(b)		3 250	2.0	156 688	97.4	971	0.6	160 909
(a) Deaths occurred on Norfolk Island from 1 July 2016 are included in this publication. See Explanatory Note 5 for more information.
(b) Includes Other Territories.

Deaths by Year of registration and Year of occurrence

The following table presents deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by year of registration and year of occurrence separately for those deaths registered up to and including 31 December 2017. While the interval between the occurrence and registration of deaths is often longer for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians than for the non-Indigenous population, there is normally little difference between the number of deaths registered in a given year and the number of deaths that occurred in the same year for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. This is because for each year, the number of deaths that are not registered in the year that they occurred are balanced by deaths that occurred in the previous years but were subsequently registered. The table below illustrates that if data are routinely reported on a year of occurrence basis, deaths data for the latest year will be underestimated.

1.5 ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER DEATHS(a), States and territories(b)(c) - 1999 to 2017
	NSW	Vic.	Qld(d)(e)	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.(f)
YEAR OF REGISTRATION
1999	435	130	529	116	350	11	399	6	1 976
2000	473	108	535	144	407	8	450	2	2 127
2001	481	93	565	125	345	32	429	3	2 072
2002	516	64	590	107	371	20	462	4	2 136
2003	485	82	569	137	338	23	435	9	2 079
2004	490	54	579	131	400	20	449	10	2 136
2005	507	71	519	142	406	28	454	11	2 141
2006	530	111	584	124	443	20	452	14	2 279
2007	601	95	594	138	449	24	461	6	2 368
2008	559	97	562	141	486	24	467	16	2 353
2009	591	106	632	160	416	30	431	10	2 377
2010	622	117	948	147	436	37	447	13	2 767
2011	726	128	629	141	454	30	437	12	2 558
2012	635	100	678	151	466	45	539	6	2 620
2013	753	123	765	177	457	27	489	18	2 811
2014	794	139	688	169	517	31	562	13	2 914
2015	822	141	842	167	511	50	537	17	3 088
2016(g)	857	175	884	170	565	54	443	19	3 168
2017	857	186	897	222	508	52	504	22	3 250
YEAR OF OCCURRENCE(h)
1999	433	105	540	117	347	12	438	7	1 999
2000	480	115	619	140	384	9	429	2	2 178
2001	487	81	581	122	368	29	430	4	2 100
2002	508	64	614	108	384	22	471	5	2 178
2003	494	83	595	144	324	22	419	12	2 095
2004	481	55	634	134	391	19	437	7	2 160
2005	508	81	542	140	416	32	496	12	2 230
2006	529	117	591	123	462	16	454	12	2 305
2007	599	94	591	140	462	25	464	8	2 383
2008	559	97	554	144	475	23	491	14	2 358
2009	596	109	628	147	409	33	440	12	2 375
2010	640	133	633	149	425	35	429	12	2 457
2011	711	104	649	148	444	32	483	11	2 582
2012	666	113	680	158	451	43	505	7	2 623
2013	755	116	749	166	462	29	508	17	2 804
2014	796	133	718	177	497	30	543	16	2 911
2015	798	147	840	157	533	50	499	16	3 041
2016(g)	861	194	839	177	536	53	458	18	3 137
2017	805	143	821	202	452	51	387	21	2 884
(a) The death of a person who is recorded as being Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or both on the Death Registration Form and/or the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death for Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory. For further information see Explanatory Note 28.
(b) State or territory of usual residence.
(c) Due to differing levels of recording Indigenous status by the states and territories registrars, and over time, care should be taken in interpreting change in numbers of deaths.
(d) Care should be taken when interpreting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths data for Queensland for 2010. See Technical Note: Queensland Retrospective Deaths Project, and Explanatory Note 36 in Deaths, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 3302.0).
(e) From 2015, deaths data provided by the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages include information resulting in an improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identification. See Explanatory Note 28.
(f) Includes Other Territories.
(g) Deaths occurred on Norfolk Island from 1 July 2016 are included in this publication. See Explanatory Note 5 for more information. (h) Includes deaths registered up to and including 31 December 2017. The number of deaths presented on a year of occurrence basis is subject to change, as deaths that occurred prior to 31 December 2017 but have not yet been registered are registered in subsequent years. See paragraphs 25 and 26 of the Explanatory Notes for more information.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER FIVE STATE/TERRITORY DATA

Median ages, age-specific death rates (ASDRs), standardised death rates (SDRs) and infant mortality rates (IMRs) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are included in this commentary for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory only. These four states and the Northern Territory have been included due to there being evidence of sufficient levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identification and sufficient numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths to support mortality analysis. Total five state/territory combines data for these five jurisdictions.

These statistics are based on three-year averages. They are calculated for each calendar year and then averaged.

Median ages

The median age at death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for total five state/territory was 59.3 years in 2015-2017, up from 54.8 years in 2005-2007. Median age at death for males was 56.7 years in 2015-2017 from 51.8 years in 2005-2007, compared with median age at death for females, 62.3 years, 58.7 years, respectively.

In comparison, the non-Indigenous median age at death was 82.0 years in 2015-2017, compared with 80.3 years in 2005-2007.

In 2015-2017, the median age at death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians varied across the five jurisdictions. For both males and females, New South Wales had the highest median age at death and Western Australia had the lowest. While the median age at death for non-Indigenous males and females varied across the five jurisdictions, they were consistently higher than medians for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Age-specific death rates (calculated per 100,000 estimated resident population)

In 2015-2017, ASDRs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for total five state/territory were higher in all age groups than those for non-Indigenous Australians. Compared with 2015-2017, ASDRs for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population declined in most age groups with the exception of 5-14, 45-54 and 75 years and over age groups. For the non-Indigenous population, ASDRs declined in all age groups during this period.

In 2015-2017, the broader 25-54 years age group had the highest ratio of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ASDRs to the non-Indigenous ASDRs for all four states and the Northern Territory. More specifically, for the 45-54 years age group, the Northern Territory had the highest rate ratio of 6.6, meaning that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ASDRs were 6.6 times the non-Indigenous ASDRs. Western Australia (4.9), South Australia (3.5) and Queensland (3.2) also had the largest rate ratio's in this age group. The 35-44 years age group showed the next highest ratio's in the Northern Territory (6.2), Western Australia (5.9) and South Australia (4.7). The 25-34 years age group showed high ratio's in Western Australia (4.9), the Northern Territory (4.6) and New South Wales (3.4).

Standardised death rates (calculated per 1,000 standard population)

In 2015-2017, the SDR for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for total five state/territory was 9.8 deaths per 1,000 standard population, lower than 9.9 deaths per 1,000 in 2005-2007. The SDR for males fell to 10.8 in 2015-2017 from 11.3 in 2005-2007. Over the same period, the SDR for females increased to 8.9 in 2015-2017 from 8.7 deaths per 1,000 standard population.

In 2015-2017, the SDR for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians varied across the selected states and territory. The Northern Territory had the highest SDR at 13.2 deaths per 1,000 standard population while New South Wales had the lowest at 7.8 deaths per 1,000.

Infant mortality rates (calculated per 1,000 live births)

In 2015-2017, the total five state/territory IMR for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians was twice the rate for non-Indigenous Australians (6.2 and 3.1 per 1,000 live births respectively).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander IMRs in the Northern Territory were the highest of the five jurisdictions in both the 2005-2007 (15.7) and 2015-2017 (13.9) periods. All five state/territory IMRs fluctuated over the ten year period due to the small and variable number of registered infant deaths in these jurisdictions.