Provisional Mortality Statistics

Latest release

Provisional deaths data for measuring changes in patterns of mortality

Reference period
Jan - May 2026
Release date and time
28/08/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

  • 73,997 deaths occurred between January and May 2026, 1.0% more than 2025, but 1.3% less than 2024.
  • 15,897 deaths occurred in May 2026, 0.9% less than 2025 and 2.4% less than 2024.

This publication presents the number of deaths occurring by week and month. Deaths occurring in 2026 have the following analysis presented: 

Australian deaths by week

All-cause deaths

  • There were 73,997 deaths in the first five months of 2026 that were registered by 31 July 2026. This is 754 deaths (1.0%) more than in 2025 but 982 (1.3%) less than in 2024.
  • There were 15,136 deaths in March 2026, 14,600 deaths in April 2026 and 15,897 deaths in May.
  • 64,654 of the deaths occurring between January and May 2026 were doctor certified and 9,343 were coroner referred.
  • The age-standardised death rate (SDR) for March was 38.8 deaths per 100,000 people, comparable to the death rate in March 2025 (38.9), but lower than the death rate for 2024 (41.2). The SDR for April (37.1) was lower than both 2025 (38.2) and 2024 (40.1). The SDR for May (40.3) was lower than both 2025 (42.2) and 2024 (44.0).

Deaths are presented by counts only. Counts of death do not account for changes in population. See data downloads for weekly and monthly age-standardised death rate calculations. 

a. Data is by occurrence.
b. Data is provisional and subject to change.
c. Weeks are defined as seven-day periods which start on a Monday as per the ISO week date system. Refer to 'Weekly comparisons' on the methodology page of this publication for more information regarding the data in this graph. Week 1 ended 7 Jan 2024, 5 Jan 2025 and 4 Jan 2026.

Age-specific death rates

The following table shows age-specific death rates (deaths per 100,000 population) for different age groups by sex in May 2026, presented alongside data for 2025 and 2024. All references to "death rates" in this section refer to age-specific death rates. 

May 2026

  • Death rates were lower across nearly all age groups in May 2026 than in both 2025 and 2024. The only exception was for those aged 0-44 years, where a 1.1% higher rate was recorded in 2026 than in 2024. The death rate for those aged 45-64 years was 10.7% lower than in 2025 and 8.7% lower than in 2024.
  • For males, nearly all age groups had a lower age-specific death rate in May than in both 2025 and 2024. The only exception was for those aged 85 years and older, which was 1.9% higher than in 2025. Males aged 45-64 years had a death rate 10.9% lower than in 2025 and 8.8% lower than in 2024. 
  • For females, nearly all age groups had a lower age-specific death rate in May than in both 2025 and 2024. The only exception was for those aged 0-44 years, where a 22.3% higher rate was recorded in 2026 than in 2024. Females aged 45-64 years had a death rate 10.4% lower than in 2025 and 8.5% lower than in 2024. 
  • For all age groups, males have a higher death rate compared to females, with the rate-ratio being larger in the younger age groups compared to older age groups.

Year to date, January to May 2026

  • For males and females, all age-specific death rates for January to May 2026 were lower than in 2025 and 2024. 
  • For males, the largest variances from previous years were in the younger age groups, with the death rate for those aged 0-44 years 13.0% lower than in 2024, and the death rate for those aged 45-64 years 4.3% lower than in 2025. 
  • For females, the largest variance from 2024 was in the death rate for those aged 45-64 years (8.2% lower), and the largest variance from 2025 was in the 65-74 year age group (3.7% lower).
Age specific rates, 2026, 2025, 2024(a)(b)(c)(d)
 MayJanuary - May
 202620252024202620252024
Persons 
0-443.8394.0563.79818.96619.44721.062
45-6426.94230.17729.507131.156136.664142.980
65-7490.08696.20999.632429.360446.091463.431
75-84260.422269.338283.3641,224.2931,248.3931,309.634
85 and over1,062.2391,077.0221,167.4324,863.8424,919.2325,240.337
All ages56.75458.08059.891264.970266.034276.537
Males 
0-444.6314.8455.08723.98124.87427.576
45-6434.20338.40137.497166.455173.871181.504
65-74111.864120.474125.589533.400554.124580.629
75-84310.669319.665331.9331,468.2471,485.6331,550.792
85 and over1,155.2651,134.0421,251.5505,141.6755,226.0045,590.172
All ages60.18761.02163.020280.148281.292292.273
Females 
0-443.0223.2432.47013.79413.85614.350
45-6419.95522.25921.80697.180100.830105.843
65-7470.20173.99675.797334.305347.128355.704
75-84215.966224.604240.0081,008.1861,037.2881,094.221
85 and over997.4721,038.0561,111.0444,671.0384,710.3405,006.283
All ages53.37155.18056.805250.010250.992261.017

 

  1. Data is by occurrence.
  2. Data is provisional and subject to change.
  3. Doctor certified and coroner referred deaths are included.
  4. Age-specific death rates reflect deaths per 100,000 of the estimated resident population (ERP).

Mortality by selected causes of death

Cause-specific mortality

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.

May 2026

  • Deaths due to dementia in May 2026 were 7.3% higher than in 2025 and 7.6% higher than in 2024.
  • The 11 influenza deaths recorded in May 2026 was well below the 64 deaths in 2025 and the 45 deaths in 2024. 
  • Deaths due to respiratory diseases (both chronic and acute) were at a similar level in May 2026 to the levels in May 2024 and 2025.
  • Deaths due to COVID-19 (that were certified by a doctor) were 48.1% lower in May 2026 than in 2025 and 87.3% lower than 2024.
  • Deaths due to ischaemic heart disease, other cardiac conditions and cerebrovascular diseases were lower in May 2026 than in May 2024 and 2025. 

Year to date, January to May 2026

  • Deaths due to dementia in the year to May 2026 were 5.8% higher than in 2025 and 7.2% higher than in 2024.
  • Deaths due to COVID-19 that were certified by a doctor between January and May 2026 were 65.2% lower than in 2025 and 85.2% lower than in 2024.
  • Deaths due to ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases were lower in the first five months of 2026 than in 2025 or 2024.
Doctor certified deaths by cause, 2026, 2025, 2024 (a)(b)
 MayYear to date - January - May
202620252024202620252024
Cancer4,5944,4624,37721,81521,05821,451
Dementia1,7021,5861,5827,5517,1357,042
Respiratory diseases1,3281,3361,3425,8915,8755,883
 Chronic lower respiratory diseases7216907293,1143,0763,184
 Influenza and pneumonia2412842881,1271,2141,141
  Pneumonia230220243974965994
Ischaemic heart disease1,0121,0541,0884,6234,8414,983
Other cardiac conditions8729229134,1493,9354,055
Cerebrovascular diseases7277497643,3023,3983,476
Diabetes4444435062,0742,0472,137
COVID-19551064342386831,608
  1. Only doctor certified deaths are included.
  2. Data is by date of occurrence.

Timeliness and completeness of data

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.

To date in 2026, the ABS has received 108,480 death registrations (deaths registered up until 31 July 2026). Of these, 95,768 deaths occurred in 2026, 12,384 deaths occurred in 2025 and the remainder occurred in earlier years.

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.

As coroner referred deaths make up a smaller proportion of all deaths (approximately 11-14%) their inclusion in all-cause data only reduces the overall completeness by around 2-3%. This should be considered when making comparisons with historical counts, noting also that the level of completeness will be higher for the start of any given month than the end of that month. 

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.

Timeliness of death registrations received by the ABS by cause of death (a)(b)(c)
 Total proportion reported at the end of
Cause of deaththe month the death occurred (%)the month after the death occurred (%)two months after the death occurred (%)
All cause - doctor and coroner certified41.293.197.6
All cause - doctor certified only43.994.998.4
All cause - coroner certified only22.680.791.6
Ischaemic heart disease (I20 – I25)42.294.398.2
Other cardiac conditions (I26 – I51)44.095.498.7
Cerebrovascular diseases (I60 – I69)44.395.298.6
Respiratory diseases (J00 – J99)44.495.999.1
Chronic lower respiratory diseases (J40 – J47)42.793.997.9
Influenza and pneumonia (J09 – J18)43.195.198.7
Cancer (C00 – C97, D45, D46, D47.1, D47.3 – D47.5)45.195.598.7
Diabetes (E10 – E14)41.891.896.7
Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (F01, F03, G30, G31.0, G31.8)44.695.899.0
  1. Percentages are based on the date registrations were received by the ABS for deaths that occurred in 2021-2025.
  2. Only doctor certified deaths are included for cause-specific data.
  3. Data is provisional and subject to change.
     

The graphs below show how numbers of deaths for each period have increased over time as additional registrations that occurred in previous months are reported to the ABS. Due to these increases, data for the most recently reported periods should be treated with caution.

Data downloads

Provisional Mortality Statistics, Jan - May 2026

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3303.0.55.004

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