Deaths from external causes

External causes of death are those resulting from external events, circumstances or conditions that cause injury or poisoning. When compiling information on deaths due to external causes the ABS codes an injury, a mechanism (e.g. how did the external event occur) and an intent (e.g. accident, assault). This publication includes information on selected topics related to external causes of death. 

Causes of death data for recent years is preliminary and subject to a revisions process. This publication includes final data for 2022 and earlier, revised data for 2023, preliminary revised data for 2024 and preliminary data for 2025. Interpret year to year comparisons with caution due to potential for registration lag with coronial cases.

Data is by date of registration and state or territory of usual residence unless otherwise indicated. Downloadable tables are available with the Causes of Death 2025 publication.

In 2025, there were 13,793 deaths from external causes, including 9,751 unintentional deaths. Over two-thirds of external cause deaths were accidents (70.7%). 

More detailed information on deaths due to suicide are published in Intentional self-harm (suicide) deaths. 

Key statistics for 2025 include:

• Close to one-quarter (23.8%) of deaths from external causes were due to suicide. 
• There were 3,283 deaths due to suicide (2,425 males and 858 females). This number is preliminary and is expected to increase as coronial investigations are finalised.
• The crude suicide rate was 11.9 deaths per 100,000 people and the age-standardised suicide rate was 11.6.
• Suicide was the 15th leading cause of death.
• The median age at death for people who died by suicide was 45.0 years (45.5 years for males and 43.8 years for females).
• 84.5% of people who died by suicide had risk factors identified. The most commonly recorded suicide risk factors included mood affective disorders (including depression) (F30-F39), suicide ideation (R45.8) and problems with spousal relationships (Z63.0, Z63.5). For more information see Risk factors for intentional self-harm deaths (Suicide) in Australia.
• For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the median age at death for suicide was 33.8 years (34.5 years for males and 32.0 years for females).

The data presented for assaults includes ICD-10 codes X85-Y09 and Y87.1.

In 2025:

• There were 252 deaths due to assault (171 males and 81 females).
• Deaths of females who died by assault decreased by 20 compared to 2024. 
• Males who died by assault increased by 2 compared to 2024. 
• The crude death rate for assault decreased from 1.0 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024 to 0.9 in 2025. The rate was 0.9 in 2021, 2022 and 2023. 
• For males, those aged 50-54 years had the largest numerical increase (7 more assault deaths).
• For females, those aged 80-84 years had the largest numerical increase (5 more assault deaths).

Some of these statistics may cause distress. Services you can contact are in the Crisis support services section.

In 2025:

• For females who died by assault, the perpetrator was most likely to be a spouse or partner (38.3%). Over 83.9% of women who died by assault from a spouse or partner were aged between 25-64 years.  
• Females were close to four times more likely than males to die by assault from a perpetrator who was a spouse or partner.
• Assaults where the perpetrator was a family member (Y07.0, Y07.1 and Y07.8) decreased by 21 deaths for females and did not decrease for males.
• For males who died by assault, the perpetrator was most often unknown to the deceased or not specified in initial reports (53.8%) followed by an acquaintance or friend (28.7%). Assault by an acquaintance or friend decreased by 28 deaths from 2024.
• There were 110 deaths due to assault where the perpetrator is either not reported to the ABS or the deceased is a stranger. This number will likely decrease as coronial investigations progress and more information becomes available to the ABS. 

Drug-induced deaths are those directly attributable to drug use. They include deaths due to acute drug toxicity (e.g. overdose) and chronic drug use (e.g. drug-induced cardiac conditions). Multiple complex factors are considered when a death is certified as drug-induced. Considerations for interpreting drug and alcohol-induced deaths data are included in the methodology. For more details of the causes included in drug-induced deaths data, refer to the Code lists for causes of death also in the methodology.

It can take a significant amount of time to certify a death as drug-induced, making these deaths particularly sensitive to the revisions process. This data is preliminary and comparisons to previous years can be misleading. Numbers of drug-induced deaths are expected to increase when the ABS revisions process is applied. 

Time series for drug-induced deaths are included in the data downloads. Revised data for drug-induced deaths will be published in early 2027. 

In 2025:

• There were 2,063 drug-induced deaths (1,372 males and 691 females). This compares with 2,007 deaths in 2024 (1,332 males and 675 females). The numbers may increase with further revisions.
• Around 70% of drug-induced deaths were accidental. 
• The age-standardised rate for drug-induced deaths was 7.4 deaths per 100,000 people, slightly higher than 2024 where the rate was 7.3.
• Age-standardised death rates were higher for those living outside capital cities (7.6 deaths per 100,000 people), compared with those who resided in greater capital cities (7.2 deaths per 100,000 people). 
• Opioids and stimulants were the most common drug class identified in toxicology for drug-induced deaths.

• The sex ratio for drug-induced deaths remains the same as the previous year at 2.0 (male to female). 
• The median age at death for drug-induced deaths was 48.2 years (47.5 years for males and 50.9 years for females).
• The highest proportion of deaths for both males and females was for those aged 45-54 years.
• For females, a higher proportion of drug-induced deaths were in older age groups than for males.

Alcohol-induced deaths are those where the underlying cause can be directly attributed to alcohol use. They include acute conditions (e.g. alcohol poisoning) or chronic conditions (e.g. alcoholic liver cirrhosis). Considerations for interpreting alcohol-induced deaths data are included in the methodology. For more details of the causes included in alcohol-induced deaths data, refer to the Code lists for causes of death in the methodology.

On average, 66% of alcohol-induced deaths are certified by a doctor. These deaths are primarily caused by chronic alcohol-induced conditions. As a result, alcohol-induced deaths data is less likely to be impacted by ABS revisions than causes with a higher proportion of coroner referral such as drug-induced deaths and suicides.

In 2025:

• There were 1,829 alcohol-induced deaths (1,307 males and 522 females). This compares with 1,781 deaths in 2024 (1,319 males and 462 females).
• The age-standardised rate for drug-induced deaths was 6.0 deaths per 100,000 people. Between 2018 and 2022 the death rate increased steadily from 4.7 to 6.2.
• The alcohol-induced age-standardised death rate for males decreased from 9.0 in 2024 to 8.8 in 2025. Between 2018 and 2022 the death rate increased steadily from 7.1 to 9.0.
• The age-standardised death rate for females increased from 3.1 in 2024 to 3.4 in 2025 and remains above the rates prior to 2022. Between 2018 and 2022 the death rate increased from 2.4 to 3.6. 
• The median age at death for alcohol-induced deaths was 57.9 years (58.6 years for males and 56.7 years for females).
• 88.6% of alcohol-induced deaths were caused by chronic alcohol-induced conditions including alcoholic liver disease, alcohol dependence and alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
• More data for alcohol-induced deaths is included in the data downloads section of the Causes of Death, Australia 2025 publication. 

Potentially avoidable mortality is defined as deaths of people under 75 years of age that arise from conditions that may be avoided through individualised care, or treated through primary care or hospitalisation (METeOR, 2021). Conditions causing potentially avoidable deaths include both external causes and some natural diseases (e.g. specific types of cancer, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes, and infectious diseases). For more detail on how the ABS measures potentially avoidable mortality, refer to the Methods for cause of death analysis in the methodology.

There were 29,551 potentially avoidable deaths (18,819 males and 10,732 females) in 2025. Of these, 41.5% were referred to a coroner (compared to 13.0% of all deaths). Data from 2025 is preliminary and comparisons made with numbers of potentially avoidable deaths from previous years should be interpreted with caution.

In 2025:

• There was an increase in the number of potentially avoidable deaths from 2024 when there were 29,252 potentially avoidable deaths (18,745 males and 10,507 females). 
• The age-standardised death rate for potentially avoidable deaths was 99.2 deaths per 100,000 people.
• Overall, 26.3% of potentially avoidable deaths were from external causes of death (30.4% for males and 19.2% for females). 
• The age-standardised death rate has decreased from 131.0 to 129.9 deaths per 100,00 people for males, while the rate has increased from 69.5 to 69.9 deaths per 100,000 people for females. The sex ratio is 1.9 (male to female). 

When coding deaths due to external causes both a mechanism (how did the death occur) and an injury or poisoning (what was the outcome of the mechanism) code is assigned. The external cause mechanism is assigned as the underlying cause of death. Most statistical tabulations for mortality are reported by underlying cause, meaning external causes of death are generally tabulated by intent and mechanism. Information on injuries provides valuable public health information. More data on injuries and poisonings can be found in the external causes of death cube and in the drug and alcohol induced death topics.

• In 2025 there were 18,045 deaths reported with injuries or poisoning as an associated cause (11,115 deaths for men and 6,930 deaths for women). This was an increase of 3.0% (518 deaths) compared with 2024. In 76.4% of these, the injury led directly to death (i.e. the external event caused death). There were a further 23.6% that were due to natural causes, but an injury or poisoning significantly contributed.
• When adjusted for age-structure and population size, the age-standardised rate for deaths with reported injuries or poisoning was 53.1 deaths per 100,000 people, an increase of 0.1 compared with 2024 when the rate was 53.0.
• In 2024 and 2025, injuries to the head were the most common type of injury. Injuries to the head (S00-S09) were predominantly intracranial injuries (S06), including traumatic brain injuries such as intracranial haemorrhage. This differs from 2020-2023 where other effects of external causes and injuries to the hip and thigh were the most common injuries occurring.
• Of the deaths with reported injuries in 2025, other effects of external causes (18.5% of accidental deaths) and head injuries (16.2% of accidental deaths) were the most reported for males. Injuries to the hip or thigh were most common for females (21.2% of accidental deaths).
• Details of injuries, poisoning and other effects will change over time as coronial cases are closed and more information is reported.

This section provides occupation information for coroner referred deaths from 2025. Occupation data was coded for the first time in 2024 using the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) 2024. The outputs are considered experimental and may be subject to improvements and revisions over time. Data sources, methods and limitations are discussed in the classification section of the methodology. This includes a link to a technical paper in 2024. Further analysis on occupation by suicide and drug-induced deaths is available above and in the Intentional self-harm (suicide) deaths publication.

Information relating to the deceased’s occupation is collected on death registration forms completed by the informant, typically the funeral director in consultation with the deceased’s family. Information on occupation is subject to limitations that may affect the accuracy, specificity and reliability of coding. Limitations should be considered when interpreting the data. Occupation information does not include reference to workplace or mechanism of death. 

See the Causes of Death, Australia 2025 data downloads for the full suite of available data. Data relating to deaths from external causes can be found in:

• Data cube 11 Intentional self-harm (suicide)(Australia)
• Data cube 13 Drug and alcohol-induced deaths (Australia)
• Data cube 15 External causes of death (Australia).