Provisional Mortality Statistics

The following section provides a preliminary overview of mortality at the all-cause level for all deaths as well as by selected cause for doctor-certified deaths in 2024. There are some deaths that occurred in 2024 that have not yet been registered and received by the ABS. These deaths will be included in future reports. Causes of death are not presented for coroner-referred deaths due to the time required to complete coronial investigations. More complete analysis on deaths and causes of death registered in 2024 will be published in Deaths, Australia and Causes of Death, Australia in late 2025. 

• There were 185,766 deaths that occurred in 2024 and were registered by 28 February 2025.
• There was a more pronounced winter peak of deaths in 2024 than in 2023, with 6% more deaths in June, July and August 2024 compared to the same months in 2023.
• July had the highest number of deaths occurring. This is similar to 2022 and 2021. In 2023 the highest number of deaths occurred in May.
• There were 1.9% more deaths in 2024 than in 2023. Four months in 2024 had fewer deaths than in 2023. These were April (22 fewer), May (356 fewer), November (539 fewer) and December (382 fewer).
• There were 2.9% fewer deaths in 2024 than in 2022. The only month in 2024 with more deaths than in 2022 was March (252 more deaths). 

Age-standardised rates take into account population size and age structure of a population, enabling comparison of deaths over time. The following graph shows the monthly age-standardised death rates per 100,000 people for the past 5 years.

• In most years, the highest monthly mortality rates occur in winter (typically July or August). This was different in 2023, when the highest mortality rate occurred in May.
• Between January and May, and from September to December monthly age standardised deaths rates in 2024 were at their lowest or second lowest since 2020 (apart from February when they were third lowest, but 2024 was a leap year).
• Between June and August, monthly age standardised death rates were at their second highest since 2020, exceeded only by the months in 2022.

The following table shows the number of doctor certified deaths by selected cause, as well as the proportion of deaths by that cause for total doctor certified mortality. 

• Deaths due to cancer account for just under one third of deaths. This is similar to 2023. A more detailed breakdown of leading types of cancer deaths will be published in the annual Causes of Death, Australia report.
• The proportion of deaths due to dementia has increased from 10.6% in 2023 to 11.0% in 2024.
• The proportion of deaths from all respiratory diseases (9.8%) was higher in 2023 than the previous 2 years, with deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases, pneumonia and influenza all accounting for an increased share of deaths.
• Deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for 2.3% of doctor certified deaths in 2024, down from 2.8% in 2023 and 5.9% in 2022.  
• The proportion of deaths from ischaemic heart disease continued to decline in 2024.

Deaths for 2024 will have two comparisons points - they will be compared to deaths occurring in 2023 and 2022. 

This publication does not provide official estimates of excess mortality. The ABS publishes official excess mortality estimates in the report Measuring Australia’s excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic until December 2023’.

Age-standardised death rates can be accessed via the data downloads tab in this publication. 

Counts of deaths for 2015-2023 are included in the historical data cubes of the data downloads section of this report. Customised datasets are able to be created from these data cubes. 

The ABS publishes two regular reports that provide preliminary information on mortality - Provisional Mortality Statistics and Deaths due to Selected acute respiratory infections. These reports provide information on different time periods and serve different purposes.

Provisional Mortality Statistics focus on monitoring patterns of mortality (by all-causes and specified leading causes of death) and highlight any changes potentially associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data must be sufficiently complete to detect such changes, and as such these reports are only released once the majority of deaths that occurred in a particular period have been registered and reported.

Deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and RSV in Australia articles focus on all deaths registered and reported with these acute respiratory infections written on the death certificate up until a specified time. These articles include important information about these acute respiratory infection certified deaths, including demographic details. While it is recognised data will be incomplete, it can still indicate emerging trends or changes among these deaths. The most recent article on deaths due to these selected acute respiratory disease, that occurred and were registered up until 31 January 2025 can be accessed through the articles link in the previous publication.

For all deaths:

• In 2024, there were 185,766 deaths that were registered by 28 February 2025. This is 3,380 deaths (1.9%) more than in 2023, but 5,621 (2.9%) fewer than in 2022.
• 14,560 deaths occurred in December 2024. This is 382 deaths (2.6%) fewer than in 2023, and 1,136 (7.2%) fewer than in 2022.
• 12,666 of the deaths occurring in December 2024 were doctor certified and 1,894 were coroner referred.

In February 2025, the ABS received 14,359 death registrations. Of these, 13,162 deaths occurred in 2025, 1,134 occurred in 2024 and the remaining 63 occurred in 2023 or earlier years.

Deaths are presented by counts only. Counts of death do not account for changes in population.

The following analysis is based only on doctor certified deaths (i.e. coroner referred deaths are not included). Any changes in patterns of coroner referral could affect counts of doctor certified deaths. Some conditions have higher coroner referral rates (ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and to a lesser extent, respiratory diseases and diabetes) so counts for those conditions would be more likely to be affected by such changes.

• In December 2024 there were 222 deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor, up from 135 deaths in October and 186 deaths in November. The 222 deaths in December 2024 were 40.8% fewer than the 375 deaths in December 2023 and less than a quarter of the 928 deaths in December 2022. In 2024 there have been 3,724 deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor. This is 15.4% fewer than the 4,401 deaths in 2023 and 62.2% fewer than the 9,843 deaths in 2022.
• As the pandemic has progressed the number of people dying 'with' COVID-19 has increased. In December 2024 there were 60 people who died with COVID-19 being identified (via death certificates) as a contributing factor to their death (ie. COVID-19 was certified on the death certificate but it was not the underlying cause of death).

• In December 2024, deaths due to dementia, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes were all at least 7% fewer than in December 2022, with deaths due to ischaemic heart disease 17.4% fewer. Deaths due to each of these conditions were all 3 to 6% higher in December 2024 than in December 2023, except ischaemic heart disease (4.0% lower).
• There were fewer deaths due to respiratory diseases in December 2024 than December 2023 (2.8% fewer) and December 2022 (1.5% fewer).
• In 2024, respiratory disease deaths were 11.2% higher than 2023 and 9.9% higher than in 2022.  Deaths due to influenza, pneumonia and chronic lower respiratory diseases were all higher in 2024 than 2023 or 2022. There were 83.8% more influenza deaths in 2024 than in 2023, and 156.6% more than in 2022.

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 2022. This table also includes deaths certified by a coroner, meaning the number of deaths may differ from analysis on doctor-certified deaths. 

• The number of deaths from COVID-19 in January 2025 (228) has continued to increase since the low of 140 recorded in October and may increase further as more death registrations are received. It remains well below the levels in January 2024 (441 deaths) and January 2023 (753 deaths).
• There have been 26 deaths due to influenza in January 2025, up from 12 deaths in December. This is comparable to January 2024 (27 deaths) and well above January 2023 (8 deaths).
• There were 7 deaths due to RSV in January 2025.

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 contributed to death).

• There are more deaths from COVID-19 and Influenza than with these conditions. For RSV, there are substantially more people who died with RSV than from RSV.
• There were 10 death with RSV in January 2025.
• Since November 2024 there have been substantially fewer deaths with COVID-19 than there were in the corresponding month of the previous year.

This release previously used catalogue number 3303.0.55.004