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. Prior to July 2025, this information was published as an article that was attached to the Provisional Mortality Statistics publication. Previous articles can be accessed from past issues of the Provisional Mortality Statistics publication.

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.

In addition, deaths reported in this publication will not represent the total mortality burden associated with acute respiratory infections. For further information on factors contributing to this underestimation, see the Timeliness and Completeness section of the Provisional Mortality Statistics publication.

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 was the leading cause of acute respiratory infection-related mortality for most of the period from 2020 to 2026. In 2025, there were 2,248 deaths involving COVID-19, and 1,800 deaths involving influenza. 
• Over the last year there has been some change across months in the most common acute respiratory infection causing death: 
  • Between August 2025 and January 2026 there were more deaths each month involving influenza than COVID-19. 
  • Between February and July 2026 there were more deaths involving COVID-19. 
  • In August 2026 there were again more deaths involving influenza.
• 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 between 2022 and 2025, and the summer peak has declined significantly each year.
• Deaths involving COVID-19 increased from 69 in July 2026 to 92 in August 2026. Despite this increase, monthly COVID-19 deaths have remained relatively stable since October 2025, with fewer than 100 deaths recorded each month. Annual deaths involving COVID-19 have also declined, from 6,199 in 2023 and 5,129 in 2024 to 2,248 in 2025.
• Deaths involving influenza increased in August 2026 to 101 deaths from 37 deaths in July. This remained lower than the number of deaths recorded in August from influenza in 2024 and 2025. 
• Deaths involving RSV remained at a similar level in July and August 2026. This was lower than August 2025 but higher than August 2024. In 2025 there were 606 deaths involving RSV, compared to 483 in 2024 and 383 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 table below presents deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and RSV since 2024.

• COVID-19 deaths increased in August 2026 but remained well below levels seen in previous years. There were 1,727 deaths due to COVID-19 in 2025, compared with 3,909 in 2024 and 4,614 in 2023..
• There have been more deaths due to COVID-19 than influenza in recent years. Some key trends are: 
  • Between January and July 2025, the number of deaths from COVID-19 (1,292) exceeded the number from influenza (705). 
  • Between August 2025 and January 2026 there were more deaths due to influenza (880) than COVID-19 (494). 
  • Between February and July 2026 the 292 deaths from COVID-19 exceeded the 121 deaths from influenza.
  • In August 2026 the 86 deaths from influenza was similar to the 83 deaths from COVID-19.
• Deaths due to influenza rose in August 2026 but remained substantially lower than the number of deaths in August 2024 and 2025. There were 1,494 deaths due to influenza in 2025, above the 1,276 deaths recorded in 2017 and the 1,072 deaths recorded in 2019, which are considered to be years with high numbers of deaths from influenza.
• Deaths due to RSV fell to 25 in August 2026. This was higher than in August 2024 but lower than in August 2025.

The table below shows the number of acute respiratory-related 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 often assigned as the underlying cause of death than as contributing causes. In contrast, RSV is more commonly assigned as a significant contributing cause. As a result, deaths with RSV should be considered when assessing its overall impact on mortality.
• Deaths with COVID-19 declined in August 2026 and remained well below levels recorded in previous years.
• Deaths with influenza rose in August 2026 and but remained much lower than previous years. Deaths with influenza had been higher than deaths with COVID-19 since August 2025 but in January 2026 both viruses recorded a similar number and from February to July there were more deaths with COVID-19.
• Deaths with RSV increased slightly in August 2026 and remained higher than deaths with influenza and COVID-19. While lower than in August 2025, they were higher than in August 2024. Annual deaths with RSV increased from 280 in 2023 to 341 in 2024 and 407 in 2025.

• More males have died from COVID-19 compared to females in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
• 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.

• As the most populous state, New South Wales generally records the highest numbers of deaths annually for acute respiratory infections. In 2026 so far New South Wales has recorded more deaths from COVID-19 (154 deaths) than Victoria (146 deaths). 
• New South Wales has also recorded the highest number of deaths from influenza (135 deaths), ahead of Victoria (78 deaths) and Queensland (72 deaths). For deaths from RSV, New South Wales has recorded the most (43 deaths), followed by Queensland (33 deaths).
• COVID-19 has caused more deaths than influenza and RSV in 2024 and 2025 in all jurisdictions with the exception of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory which recorded more influenza deaths in 2025. In Western Australia there were 148 deaths from both COVID-19 and influenza in 2025. COVID-19 has caused more deaths than influenza in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania in 2026.

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 282 deaths in 2022 to 26 deaths in 2025. There have been 12 deaths recorded in 2026 so far.

There were 539 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:

• 352 died due to COVID-19. This is where the virus caused complications that led directly to death. A further 187 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.
• Just over one-third (34.7%) of deaths involving COVID-19 of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were those where the virus was recorded as a contributing factor. 
• The mortality rate for COVID-19-related deaths is similar for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males (25.4) and females (26.0).  

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 26 deaths involving COVID-19 and 64 deaths involving influenza. So far in 2026 there have 12 deaths involving COVID-19 and 16 deaths involving influenza.
• In 2025 the mortality rate for COVID-19 related deaths was around 3.5 times lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than in 2024. 
• The 2025 mortality rate for influenza-related deaths was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 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 30 September 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 0.9% of all registered deaths in 2025, ranging from a low of 0.3% in November and December to a high of 1.7% in January and June. In 2026, the percentage of all deaths that were from COVID-19 has increased to 0.5% in August 2026, after remaining quite stable at 0.3% or 0.4%, for the earlier months.

Deaths from influenza accounted for 0.8% of all registered deaths in 2025, ranging from a low of 0.2% in January and February to a high of 1.5% in July and September. In 2026, 0.6% of all deaths in January were from influenza. Between February and July 2026, 0.1% or 0.2% of all deaths have been from influenza each month. In August 2026, 0.5% of deaths were from influenza. 

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

Mortality data is provisional, with lags in reporting meaning revisions are more likely for recent months. Each death registration in the national mortality dataset has 3 dates:

• The date on which the death occurred.
• The date on which the death was registered with the jurisdictional Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages (RBDM).
• The date on which the death was lodged with the ABS.

When looking to measure change over time, the completeness of data for the most recent period is important. When data is received each month by the ABS, the lag between the date of death and the date of registration means that approximately 40-50% of reported registrations are of deaths that occurred in the month being reported. The remainder are deaths that occurred in earlier months.

For deaths which are doctor certified, approximately 95% of registrations are received after a second month of reporting, while for coroner certified deaths, the proportion of registrations reported after a second month is lower (approximately 80%). This is because it takes longer for coroners to certify deaths due to the complexity of investigations.

Historical data shows that approximately 98% of all acute respiratory infection death registrations are received within the two months of the death occurring.

This pattern of registration and reporting is highlighted in the table below, which also shows the slight variation in reporting timelines by cause of death.

The cause of death information included national mortality dataset compiled by the ABS is sourced from medical certificates of causes of death (MCCD) for deaths referred deaths or the forensic pathology reports for coroner referred deaths.  For a death to be tabulated as involving COVID-19, influenza and RSV, these conditions must be certified as having contributed to death on the MCCD or coroner report.

There may be deaths where a person has died where COVID-19, influenza or RSV was present, but the infection was not certified on the death certificate. Reasons for this vary but may include:

• It may be the best medical opinion of the certifying practitioner that the viral infection did not contribute to death. For example, a person may have died from injuries from a motor vehicle crash who had influenza, but it was not deemed to be contributory to death.
• A certifying practitioner may be unaware that a person had a current or past infection.
• A certifying practitioner may only include partial information on a death certificate. For example, a cause of death may be reported as “viral pneumonia”. While this certification indicates a virus had caused a respiratory disease, the death is not able to be attributed to COVID-19, influenza or RSV as the viral agent is not explicitly stated.

As a result, this publication will not capture every death in Australia where COVID-19, influenza and RSV were present or contributed to death. This publication should be used a resource alongside other outputs including national and state and territory disease surveillance data and publications such as Excess Mortality in Australia.