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MEDIAN AGE AT DEATH

Care should be exercised when analysing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian median age at death, as in addition to the issues previously identified, it may also be affected by differences in identification by age. For example, higher levels of identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian infant deaths compared with older age groups may result in the median age at death being underestimated.

As with age-specific death rates, median age at death data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are only included in this publication for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded due to small numbers of registered deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In 2009, the median age at death of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian males varied across the states and territories, from 48 years in South Australia to 57 years in New South Wales, compared with 67 years in the Northern Territory to 79 years in South Australia for non-Indigenous males. Similarly, the median age at death of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian females was lower than for non-Indigenous females, 53 years in South Australia to 66 years in New South Wales compared with 72 years in Northern Territory to 85 years in South Australia.

3.6 Median age at death, Indigenous status(a) - 2004 to 2009
		NSW	Qld	SA	WA	NT	Total(b)
Males
Indigenous
	2004	55.8	53.7	49.5	50.0	43.8	51.2
	2005	54.3	51.1	42.4	52.8	45.8	50.4
	2006	59.3	55.6	50.4	47.9	45.4	52.4
	2007	58.1	54.7	50.5	53.3	45.9	53.1
	2008	59.9	53.2	49.0	51.2	52.1	53.8
	2009	57.2	53.2	48.0	50.6	48.3	52.5
Non-Indigenous
	2004	77.0	76.2	77.6	76.3	63.0	76.8
	2005	77.2	76.4	77.9	76.6	63.7	76.9
	2006	77.8	76.7	78.3	76.9	64.7	77.4
	2007	78.1	77.1	78.7	76.9	64.6	77.7
	2008	78.5	77.3	79.2	77.1	66.3	78.0
	2009	78.4	77.2	79.3	77.3	66.6	78.0
Females
Indigenous
	2004	62.7	57.9	53.5	63.6	54.0	60.1
	2005	65.8	59.5	47.5	57.8	50.4	57.9
	2006	64.8	57.0	59.3	57.0	55.3	59.0
	2007	63.0	59.5	58.3	59.3	55.7	59.5
	2008	63.8	62.3	53.5	64.0	56.0	60.5
	2009	65.9	62.6	53.0	58.7	55.4	61.3
Non-Indigenous
	2004	82.8	82.5	83.3	82.3	71.3	82.7
	2005	83.1	82.6	83.7	83.2	70.5	83.1
	2006	83.5	83.1	84.1	83.1	75.0	83.4
	2007	83.7	83.3	84.3	83.4	69.3	83.6
	2008	84.2	83.7	84.6	84.1	75.7	84.1
	2009	84.1	83.4	84.6	83.6	71.8	83.9
(a) Care should be exercised when comparing median age at death of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. See Commentary.
(b) Data are for NSW, Qld, WA, SA,and NT combined, based on state or territory of usual residence. Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded due to small numbers of registered Indigenous deaths.