MEDIA RELEASE
10 November 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	143/2011

Australian life expectancy for both males and females continues to be amongst the highest in the world, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

A boy born today can expect to live an average of 79.5 years, while a girl can expect to live to 84.0 years. Having survived to age 60, men could expect to live another 23 years and women another 26 years.

Since 1990, life expectancy has increased by 6 years for men and just under 4 years for women, reflecting the decrease in death rates over time. The increase in life expectancy is one of the factors contributing to the ageing of Australia's population.

Death rates have continued to decline over the past 20 years. In 2010, the standardised death rate was the lowest on record at 5.7 deaths per 1000 people. In 1990, the standardised death rate was 8.6 deaths per 1000 people.

The infant mortality rate decreased slightly, from 4.3 deaths per 1,000 births in 2009 to 4.1 in 2010.

There were nearly 143,500 deaths registered in 2010 (73,500 men and 70,000 women).

In 2010, death rates were lowest in the major cities (5.7 deaths per 1,000 standard population) and highest in very remote areas (8.1 deaths per 1,000 standard population).

Further information is available in Deaths, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 3302.0) available for free download from the ABS website www.abs.gov.au.


Media Notes:

Standardised death rates enable the comparison of death rates between populations with different age structures by relating them to a standard population.

Infant mortality rate is based on deaths of children less than one year of age.

The standard population is the Australian population at 30 June 2001.

When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.