Deaths due to acute respiratory infections in Australia

This publication reports on the number of monthly deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). These viral diseases will be referred to collectively as deaths due to acute respiratory infections. Due to the higher number of deaths due to COVID-19, a more detailed analysis will be included for this cause. 

The ABS mortality data is sourced from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and is separate from the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. While the registration-based deaths data takes longer to receive and process, this dataset has provided important supplementary information to the surveillance system data. 

All data presented in this article is provisional. It is expected that numbers of deaths due to these causes will increase for more recent time periods as more death registrations are received by the ABS. 

The table below shows the number of deaths associated with acute respiratory infections reported on a medical certificate of cause of death by month and year. A death involving an acute respiratory infection is one where the viral disease has either directly caused the death (the virus has caused terminal complications such as pneumonia) or the person has died with the virus (a person has died from another cause but the viral illness still contributed significantly to death). 

• COVID-19 has been the leading cause of acute respiratory infection related mortality across the majority of 2020-2025. In 2025 there were 2,172 deaths involving COVID-19, and 1,738 deaths involving influenza. Since August 2025 the number of deaths involving influenza has exceeded the number of deaths involving COVID-19.
• Beginning from the summer of 2021-2022, COVID-19 recorded a pattern where there were two peaks of mortality during the year - one occurring between November and January and the other occurring between May and August. The winter peak has occurred in each year since 2022, but the summer peak has declined in significance each year. Preliminary data does not show a summer peak in 2025-2026, despite the small increase in January 2026. The ABS will continue to monitor this as additional death registrations are received.
• After consecutive months between October and December 2025 of very low numbers of COVID-19 deaths, the number of COVID-19-related deaths has increased slightly in January 2026 to 69 deaths. This is much lower than the winter peak for 2025. In 2025 there were 2,172 deaths involving COVID-19, compared to 5,111 in 2024 and 6,194 in 2023.
• Deaths involving influenza fell slightly in January 2026 but are well above previous levels usually recorded in January. In 2025 there were 1,738 deaths involving influenza, compared to 1,045 in 2024 and 612 in 2023. In the more recent years with a high level of influenza mortality, there were 1,314 deaths in 2019 and 1,656 deaths in 2017.  
• Deaths involving RSV fell slightly in January 2026 but are above numbers recorded in the same month of 2024 and 2025.  In 2025 there were 587 deaths involving RSV, compared to 482 in 2024 and 382 in 2023.

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 have been caused by the virus. 

The following table shows the number of deaths due to acute respiratory diseases since 2024. 

• The number of deaths due to COVID-19 increased slightly in January 2026 but remains at a very low level compared to previous years. The 1,715 deaths due to COVID-19 in 2025 are well below both 2024 (3,905 deaths) and 2023 (4,611).
• Between August 2025 and January 2026 there have been more deaths due to influenza (851) than COVID-19 (489). Between January and July, the number of COVID-19 deaths (1,282) exceeded the number of influenza deaths (687).
• Deaths due to influenza fell in January 2026 but remain high for the time of year. There were 1,449 deaths due to influenza in 2025, above the 1,276 deaths recorded in 2017 and the 1,072 deaths recorded in 2019, which were recent bad years for influenza.
• Deaths due to RSV remained at low levels in January 2026.

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 still contributed significantly to death).

• COVID-19 and Influenza are more likely to be assigned as the underlying causes of death rather than a contributing factor (i.e. a person died with the virus). The opposite is true for RSV - it is more likely to be listed as a significant contributor to death. To wholly monitor the effects of RSV on mortality, deaths with RSV should be taken into consideration.
• Deaths with COVID-19 were slightly higher in January 2026 than December 2025, but remain at low levels compared to previous years.
• There were 12 deaths where influenza was mentioned as a contributory cause  in January 2026. Deaths with influenza had been higher than deaths with COVID-19 since August 2025 but in January 2026 both viruses recorded a similar number.
• The number of deaths where RSV was certified as a contributory cause decreased in January 2026 and were comparable to the number of deaths with COVID-19 and with influenza. The number of deaths with RSV was higher in 2025 (393 deaths) than in 2024 (341 deaths) and in 2023 (279 deaths).

• More males have died from COVID-19 compared to females in 2024 and 2025. In 2026 there have been 37 deaths of both males and females from COVID-19. More females than males have died from influenza and RSV in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
• Those aged over 90 years are the only age group to consistently record more deaths of females than males from COVID-19. Nearly two thirds of Australia's population of persons aged over 90 years are female.
• All three of these acute respiratory infections are more likely to cause death in older age groups than younger age groups.
• RSV deaths for 2026 have not been shown due to small numbers.

• As the most populous state, New South Wales generally records the highest numbers of deaths for acute respiratory infections. In 2026 so far there have been more deaths from COVID-19 and influenza registered in Victoria than any other state, with Queensland recording the second highest number of deaths from influenza.
• COVID-19 has caused more deaths than influenza and RSV in 2024 and 2025 in all jurisdictions with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory recording more influenza deaths in 2025. In 2026 so far influenza has caused more deaths than COVID-19 in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are at heightened risk of more severe outcomes from acute respiratory diseases. There are several reasons for this, including higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, higher rates of chronic diseases and limited access to culturally safe health care.

This section presents three tables which includes information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died from acute respiratory diseases. The first two tables focus on COVID-19 mortality only due to the higher numbers of deaths from the virus. The third table presents numbers of deaths and age-standardised death rates on deaths associated with COVID-19, influenza and RSV. For most of the analysis deaths include those where the acute respiratory disease was listed on the medical certificate of cause of death. This includes deaths where the acute respiratory disease caused death and those where the acute respiratory disease contributed to death. Data is presented in this way largely due to the small numbers of deaths from these diseases in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  

There have been deaths recorded in all jurisdictions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In previous publications, only deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that were registered in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory have been reported. The ABS has conducted an extensive review of Indigenous status recorded for deaths registered in Victoria and implemented enhancements to how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin is recorded for deaths in Victoria. These improvements in identification now permit inclusion of Victorian data in mortality outputs by Indigenous status for recent years. 

Since 2022 the number of deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involving COVID-19 has declined each year from 281 deaths in 2022 to 23 deaths in 2025.

There were 525 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had COVID-19 certified as a cause of death across the six jurisdictions in 2022-2026. Of these people:

• 347 died due to COVID-19. This is where the virus caused complications that led directly to death. A further 178 people died with COVID-19. This is where another disease caused the terminal complication causing death but COVID-19 was a contributing factor.
• The age-standardised death rate for deaths from COVID-19 was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females than males, while the reverse is true for deaths with COVID-19. For non-Indigenous people, males have a higher death rate from COVID-19 and with COVID-19 than females.
• Of those who died from or with COVID-19, a higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died with COVID-19 as a contributing factor compared with non-Indigenous people (33.9% compared with 22.6%).
• The mortality rate from COVID-19 is 1.5 times higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous people.
• For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females, the rate of mortality with COVID-19 is 2.4 times higher than that of non-Indigenous females.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who died from or with an acute respiratory disease: 

• COVID-19 was involved in more deaths than both influenza and RSV across each year in 2022-2024. In 2025 there were 23 deaths involving COVID-19 and 57 deaths involving influenza.
• In 2025 the mortality rate for COVID-19 related deaths was four times lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander than in 2024. The rate was also lower than that recorded for non-Indigenous people.
• The 2025 mortality rate for influenza related mortality was higher in both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people than for 2024. Influenza mortality rates were higher in 2024 than in 2022 or 2023.

Deaths from acute respiratory infections as a proportion of total deaths changes over time and is dependent on a number of factors. The following table shows the number of deaths due to acute respiratory infections by month of occurrence in the context of total deaths registered by 28 February and received by the ABS. These counts are not final and are considered preliminary. This number will increase as the ABS receives more finalised registrations and an updated count for all months will be published in next month's publication. Cause of death counts will also increase as more deaths are received. See the 'Timeliness and Completeness' section in the Provisional Mortality Statistics publication for more information on when deaths are most likely to be received by the ABS.  

Deaths from COVID-19 accounted for 1.7% of all registered deaths in January 2025 and declined to lows of 0.7% between March and May. Deaths from COVID-19 increased as a percentage of all deaths received by the ABS during the winter months, peaking at 1.7% of deaths in June and have since fallen to 0.3% of deaths in December. In January 2026 they increased slightly to 0.4% of all deaths.

Deaths due to influenza rose from 0.2% of all deaths in January 2025 to 1.5% of deaths in July 2025, and were 1.4% of deaths in August and September before falling to 0.6% of deaths in November. Deaths due to influenza were 0.7% of all deaths in December and 0.6% of all deaths in January 2026.

Numbers and proportions may change as additional registrations are received by the ABS and cause of death revisions applied.