Deaths, Australia

Latest release

Deaths and mortality rates for Australia, states and territories, and sub-state regions

Reference period
2025
Release date and time
02/10/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

  • There were 188,421 registered deaths in 2025, an increase of 1,153 since 2024.
  • The standardised death rate decreased to 4.955 deaths from 5.078 in 2024.
  • Infant deaths increased by 62 deaths to 1,019.
Summary statistics
 201520242025
All deaths (no.)159,052187,268188,421
Infant deaths (no.)9919571,019
Standardised death rate(a)5.5215.0784.955
Crude death rate(b)6.6786.8846.823
Infant mortality rate(c)3.253.273.40
  1. The standardised death rate (SDR) uses the age distribution of total persons in the Australian population at 30 June 2001 as the standard population. The SDR is expressed as deaths per 1,000 standard population.
  2. The crude death rate is the number of deaths registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June.
  3. The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children under 1 year of age registered during the calendar year per 1,000 live births registered in the same period.

This publication presents statistics about deaths and mortality rates in the reference year 2025. Information about causes of death are available in Causes of Death, Australia.

National

Deaths registered

  • There were 188,421 deaths registered in 2025, an increase of 1,153 from 2024 (187,268).
  • There were more male deaths (98,762) than female deaths (89,659), resulting in a sex ratio of 110.2 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.

Age and sex distribution

  • In every age group spanning 0 to 84 years, there were more male deaths than female deaths.
  • For age groups 85 to 89 years and onwards, more female deaths were recorded than male deaths.
  1. Excludes deaths for which age was not stated.

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate decreased: 

  • to 4.955 deaths per 1,000 standard population, from 5.078 in 2024
  • by 0.566 since 2015, with males showing a decrease of 0.715 and females showing a decrease of 0.459 over the 10-year period.

Crude death rate

Age-specific death rate

States and territories

Deaths registered

  • All states and territories recorded an increase in death registrations in 2025 except for Queensland and South Australia.
  • Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory recorded their largest number of deaths on record.
Deaths registered by state and territory of usual residence
State and territory2015 (no.)2024 (no.)2025 (no.)Change from 2024 to 2025 (no.)
New South Wales53,60059,64160,131490
Victoria39,90445,94346,636693
Queensland29,78238,90138,411-490
South Australia13,64715,73915,612-127
Western Australia14,44817,96918,273304
Tasmania4,6335,3655,39429
Northern Territory(a)1,1711,2391,449210
Australian Capital Territory1,8592,4252,48257
Australia(b)159,052187,268188,4211,153
  1. The increase in deaths registered in the Northern Territory in 2025 was influenced by the finalisation of a larger than usual number of registrations that had outstanding queries when first submitted to the Northern Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. See section Processing the data in the methodology for further details.
  2. Includes Other Territories.

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate was:

  • highest in the Northern Territory (7.241 deaths per 1,000 standard population)
  • lowest in the Australian Capital Territory (4.501).

Over the past 10 years, standardised death rates decreased:

  • the most in the Northern Territory (7.241 deaths from 8.235 in 2015)
  • in Tasmania (5.717 deaths from 6.448 in 2015), Western Australia (4.710 deaths from 5.370), New South Wales (4.896 deaths from 5.529), Victoria (4.828 deaths from 5.358) and South Australia (5.108 deaths from 5.610)
  • the least in Queensland (5.127 deaths from 5.575) and the Australian Capital Territory (4.501 deaths from 4.819).
  1. The increase in deaths registered in the Northern Territory in 2025 was influenced by the finalisation of a larger than usual number of registrations that had outstanding queries when first submitted to the Northern Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. See section Processing the data in the methodology for further details.
  2. Includes Other Territories.

Infants

Deaths registered

Infant deaths are defined as deaths of children aged less than 1 year.

  • There were 1,019 infant deaths registered in 2025 (568 boys and 451 girls).
  • This was a 6.5% increase compared with the number registered in 2024 (957).
  • Over the past 10 years, the number of infant deaths fluctuated due to the small and variable number of registered infant deaths.

Infant mortality rate

Australia has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

The infant mortality rate:

  • was 3.40 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
  • increased from 2015 (3.25).

Births registered by Indigenous status of the birth, 2025

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Derivation of Indigenous status

Over recent years the ABS has improved how it derives Indigenous status in death registration data. This has led to an increased number of deaths of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people, and fewer cases where Indigenous status is unknown or not stated. Caution should be used when interpreting time series data. See Methodology for more detail.

Deaths registered

In 2025, there were 6,056 deaths registered where the person was identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, an increase of 453 deaths nationally from 2024.

All of the states and territories recorded increases except for Victoria (440 deaths, down from 467 in 2024).

  • New South Wales recorded the largest numerical increase, 2,064 deaths compared with 1,904 in 2024
  • The Northern Territory recorded the next largest increase (687 deaths, up from 529)
  • Western Australia (794 deaths, up from 704)
  • Queensland (1,515 deaths, up from 1,466)
  • Tasmania (204 deaths, up from 190)
  • The Australian Capital Territory (35 deaths, up from 31)
  • South Australia (312 deaths, up from 310).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths registered by state and territory of usual residence
 2023 (no.)(a)2023 (%)2024 (no.)2024 (%)2025 (no.)2025 (%)Change from 2024 to 2025 (no.)
NSW1,779 33.81,904 34.02,064 34.1160
Vic.412 7.8467 8.3440 7.3-27
Qld1,248 23.71,466 26.21,515 25.049
SA319 6.1310 5.5312 5.22
WA737 14.0704 12.6794 13.190
Tas.142 2.7190 3.4204 3.414
NT(b)581 11.1529 9.4687 11.3158
ACT37 0.731 0.635 0.64
Aust.(c)5,256 100.05,603 100.06,056 100.0453
  1. The increase in deaths registered in the Northern Territory in 2025 was influenced by the finalisation of a larger than usual number of registrations that had outstanding queries when first submitted to the Northern Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. See section Processing the data in the methodology for further details.
  2. The 2023 increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths is largely due to the use of additional sources of information for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths. For more detail, refer to the Technical Note: The impact of using multiple sources for deriving the Indigenous status of deaths in 2023 – changes for Victoria and for coroner referred deaths.
  3. Includes Other Territories.

Age and sex distribution

In 2025, deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people peaked at:

  • 65 to 69 years for males (6.56%)
  • 85 years and over for females (5.55%).
  1. Excludes deaths for which age was not stated.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - 5 state/territory data

Median ages, age-specific death rates, standardised death rates, crude death rates and infant mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are presented for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory only. These 5 jurisdictions have been included as they have sufficient levels of identification and sufficient numbers of deaths to support mortality analysis. The total therefore represents the total for these 5 jurisdictions only.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, summary statistics(a)
 201520242025
All deaths (no.)(b)2,8794,9135,372
Infant deaths (no.)104144144
Standardised death rate(c)(d)8.09.910.0
Crude death rate(c)(d)3.65.35.5
Infant mortality rate(c)(e)6.56.26.3
  1. Includes data for the 5 states and territories - New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Data for Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (based on state and territory of usual residence) are excluded due to the small numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.
  2. The increase in deaths registered in the Northern Territory in 2025 was influenced by the finalisation of a larger than usual number of registrations that had outstanding queries when first submitted to the Northern Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. See section Processing the data in the methodology for further details.
  3. These rates are based on 3-year averages. They are calculated for each calendar year and then averaged.
  4. Rates use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimates and projections based on the 2021 Census. These rates may differ from those previously published.
  5. An increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander births in 2024 and 2025 was largely due to a methodological change applied by the ABS when deriving Indigenous status for births. More information will be released in Births, Australia, 2025.

Median age at death

Standardised death rate

The standardised death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

  • was 10.0 deaths per 1,000 standard population, up from 8.0 in 2015
  • for males increased to 11.3 from 8.8 10 years ago
  • for females increased to 8.8 from 7.4 over the same period
  • was highest in the Northern Territory at 13.7 and lowest in Queensland at 9.0.

Infant mortality rate

Deaths by year of registration and year of occurrence

There is often a delay between the occurrence and registration of a death, but there is normally little difference between the number of deaths registered and the number that occurred in a given year. The number of deaths not registered in the year that they occurred are balanced by the number of deaths that occurred in the previous years but were subsequently registered. Data for the latest year will be underestimated if reported on a year of occurrence basis. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by year of registration

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by year of occurrence

Data downloads

Notes

Data files

Methodology

Scope

All deaths that occurred and were registered in Australia, including deaths of persons whose place of usual residence was overseas.

Geography

Data available for:

  • Australia
  • States and territories
  • Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2)
  • Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3)
  • Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4)
  • Remoteness Areas (RA)
  • Local Government Areas (LGA).

Source

Death registrations systems administered by Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages in each state and territory and Norfolk Island.

Collection method

Information about the deceased is supplied by a relative or other person acquainted with the deceased, or by an official of the institution where the death occurred.

Concepts, sources and methods

Not applicable to this release.

History of changes

Not applicable to this release.

View full methodology
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