Mortality

Introduction

Mortality is used internationally as an indicator of overall population health and socioeconomic development. Differences in mortality patterns are commonly used in public health to identify new pathogens, exposure to harmful substances or conditions, or underlying inequity that may negatively impact health.

Key statistics

In 2021, 33,858 Queensland residents died for an age-standardised mortality rate (ASR or standardised rate) of 5.2 per 1,000 persons. Females had a lower standardised mortality rate (4.4 per 1,000) than males (6.1 per 1,000).

• The Queensland rate was similar to the Australian rate (5.1 per 1,000 persons) and Queensland had the 4th highest standardised mortality rate among the jurisdictions.¹
• Median age at death in Queensland in 2021 was 80.7 years (78.2 for males and 83.7 years for females).¹
• More than a third (37.0%) of deaths were of people aged 85 years and older.

Infant mortality

In 2021, there were 241 infants deaths (defined as a death before 12 months of age), resulting in an infant mortality rate of 3.8 per 1,000 live births.¹ The Australian infant mortality rate was 3.3 per 1,000 live births and Queensland ranked 5th among Australian jurisdictions.

Perinatal mortality

In 2020, there were 668 perinatal deaths in Queensland, that is stillborn infants or a death in the first 28 days. Of these, 70.7% were stillbirths. The perinatal death rate was 11.2 per 1,000 births.²

Queensland ranked 6th in 2020 among the jurisdictions based on the national definition of perinatal deaths.³

Mortality trends

Queensland mortality rates steadily declined over the last several decades, a trend similarly seen for Australia overall (Figure 1).

• In 1971, the standardised mortality rate for Queensland was 12.7 per 1,000 persons reducing to 5.2 per 1,000 persons in 2021¹
• Median age of death increased from 70.4 years in 1971 to 80.7 years in 2021.¹
• Infant mortality rate decreased from 19.0 per 1,000 live births in 1971 to 3.8 per 1,000 live births in 2021¹

Figure 1: Queensland trends in selected mortality measures

Age at death

Older people have a higher risk of death than younger age groups. Age distributions are changing in most developed countries with older age groups making up a larger proportion of the total population. This, and increasing population size, means that the number of deaths will continue to increase. Age-specific rates and standardised rates, which adjust for changing age distributions, better monitor changes over time.

In 2021, 37.0% of Queensland deaths were among adults 85 years and older (Figure 2), while this age group makes up only 1.8% of the population.⁴

Remoteness and socioeconomic differences

Queensland is a diverse state with areas classified from major cities to remote or very remote based on travel distances to the nearest service centre.⁵ Socioeconomic differences are assessed using the area-based index of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage.⁶

In 2021 (Figure 3):

• Standardised death rates were 5.0 per 1,000 persons for major cities and 6.2 per 1,000 persons remote and very remote areas.⁷
• The median age at death for people living in major cities was 81.3 years, while it was 73.5 years for those living in remote or very remote areas.
• While infant mortality rates were 37.8% in outer regional areas compared to major cities, all remoteness categories were higher than the national rate.

In 2020 (Figure 3):

• The standardised death rate in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas was 43.4% higher than that of the most advantaged areas (5.7 per 1,000 persons compared with 4.0 per 1,000 persons).⁶

Premature and potentially avoidable deaths

Measures of avoidable mortality, such as premature and potentially avoidable deaths, provide a broad indication of the effectiveness of health care systems and public health strategies.

Premature deaths are defined as death before 75 years of age. In 2020 (Figure 4):

• 36.8% of deaths in Queensland were premature deaths.

• Males had a higher standardised premature death rate (2.6 per 1,000) than females (1.5 per 1,000).

• The standardised premature death rate in Queensland was similar to the national rate (2.0 per 1,000 compared to 1.9 per 1,000, respectively) and Queensland ranked 5th among the Australian states and territories.⁸

A subset of premature deaths from certain conditions are considered potentially avoidable meaning that they could have been prevented with individualised care or through existing health care services. Potentially avoidable deaths (PADs) are classified using the National Healthcare Agreement definition in this report,⁹ and in Queensland in 2020, 50.1% of premature deaths were classified as potentially avoidable.⁸

Figure 4: Queensland premature and potentially avoidable deaths

Leading causes of death

For the period 2016–2020, the leading cause of death for Queensland residents was coronary heart disease (Table 1). There were sex differences, however, with dementia including Alzheimer’s disease the leading cause for females and coronary heart disease for males.⁸

The top five leading causes of death in this 5-year period in Queensland were:

• Coronary heart disease: 11.9% of all deaths (12.9% for males and 10.8% for females)
• Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease: 8.3% of all deaths (5.8% for males and 11.2% for females)
• Cerebrovascular disease: 6.3% of all deaths (5.0% for males and 7.8% for females)
• Lung cancer: 5.8% of all deaths (6.5% for males and 5.1% for females)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 4.6% of all deaths (4.9% for males and 4.4% for females)
• The 6th leading cause for males was prostate (4.5%) and and females was breast (4.0%) cancer.

COVID-19

During the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s strict border control and public health measures minimised the number of deaths due to the disease. From 2020 to 2021, a total of 10 Queenslanders died from COVID-19.¹⁰ After adjusting for population size, this was still far fewer than in other countries. In 2022, however, the number of deaths have increased substantially, and there were 1,757 deaths in Queensland among people with COVID-19 from the start of the pandemic to a given date 31 January 2023.¹¹

Additional information

Data and statistics

The visualisations below provides more detailed information for mortality.

Supplemental Figure S1: Mortality measures

Section technical notes

Where presented, ratios were calculated using higher precision estimates than those that are displayed within the report.

Unless otherwise stated, age-standardised rates were calculated by standardising to 2001 Australian standard population.

Death data for recent periods are preliminary and subject to change. Refer to Causes of Death, Australia on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website for further information.

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Deaths, year of registration, summary data, sex, states, territories and australia.
2. Queensland Health. 2021. Queensland Perinatal Statistics 2020. Brisbane.
3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2022. Australia’s Mothers and Babies.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Deaths, year of registration, age at death, age-specific death rates, sex, states, territories and australia.
5. Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research. 2018. Accessibility/remoteness index of australia (ARIA).
6. Australian Coordinating Registry. 2022. Cause of death unit record file.
7. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Deaths, Australia 2021.
8. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2022. Mortality Over Regions and Time (MORT) books. doi: 10.25816/JJ1A-9Y78.
9. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2021. National healthcare agreement: PI 16potentially avoidable deaths, 2022.
10. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Causes of Death, Australia, 2021. Canberra.
11. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2023. COVID-19 mortality in Australia: deaths registered until 31 January 2023. Canberra.