Dementia causes more than 1 in 10 deaths

Dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, accounted for just over 10 per cent (19,019) of all deaths in 2025, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Lauren Moran, ABS head of mortality statistics, said: "Deaths due to dementia  increased after becoming the leading cause of death in Australia in recent years". 

“This is the first time that dementia has accounted for more than 10 per cent of all deaths in Australia and is almost double its share in 2006, when dementia was the fourth leading cause of death at 5 per cent of all deaths.”

The other leading causes of death in 2025 were: ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

For females, there were almost twice as many deaths from dementia (11,628) as from ischaemic heart diseases, the second leading cause of death for women (5,965 deaths). 

Dementia deaths have been the leading cause of death for females for a decade, since 2016. In 2025, 61.1 per cent of all deaths from dementia were in females.

Mortality rates declined overall in 2025, with Australia's mortality patterns now back around their long-term pre-pandemic trajectory.

The age-standardised death rate for males fell to a record low of 581.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2025. The death rate for females was the second lowest on record, with 418.4 deaths per 100,000 people.

"With an ageing population, we expect the number of deaths to increase over time, even as death rates decline relative to population size. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily disrupted that pattern, but these rates indicate that Australia’s mortality patterns are returning to the long-term trend of declining death rates," Ms Moran said.

Drug-induced deaths remained a public health issue in 2025, rising to 2,063 deaths from 2,007 deaths in 2024.

"The mortality rate for drug-induced deaths was 7.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, and the median age at death was 48.2 years. When this mortality rate previously peaked in 1999, the median age at death was 33.8 years," Ms Moran said.

"While opioids and benzodiazepines continue to be the most common drug classes involved in these deaths, there has been substantial growth in deaths involving stimulants, including methamphetamine."

There were 779 drug-induced deaths involving stimulants in 2025, compared with 504 deaths in 2021.

Suicide remained the leading cause of premature death for both males and females in 2025.

There were 3,283 deaths due to suicide, equivalent to 11.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Men accounted for almost three-quarters of these deaths.

People who died by suicide had a median age of 45.0 years.

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