Dementia is almost Australia’s leading cause of death, new ABS data shows. Picture: stock
Australia’s top causes of death is changing as heart disease gives way to dementia, according to newly released Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
According to data for 2023 just released by the ABS, heart disease remains the leading cause of death but dementia was close behind.
Stroke was the third leading cause for 2023 compared to COVID-19 for 2022, the ABS says.
COVID-19 fell to ninth place, lung cancer came in fourth and the fifth leading cause was chronic lower respiratory diseases.
Sixth was diabetes, seventh was bowel cancer, eighth was blood and lymph cancers and urinary diseases was 10th.
Lauren Moran is the ABS head of mortality statistics.
“We’ve seen a drop in heart disease mortality and a rise in dementia deaths over time associated with both improvements in medical treatment and health care, and an ageing population,” she says.
“This is changing our leading causes of death.”
She says their latest data shows that there are now less than 250 deaths separating the top two leading causes.
“Heart diseases were the cause of 9.2 per cent of deaths while dementia (which includes Alzheimer’s disease) accounted for 9.1 per cent of deaths in 2023,” she says.
“Dementia has been the leading cause of death for women since 2016, making up 12.2 per cent of female deaths and 6.4 per cent of male deaths in 2023.
“Women have longer life expectancies than men and as such are more likely to live to an age when they have a heightened risk of developing dementia,” Ms Moran says.
“Dementia is also the leading cause of death in South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and, for the first time, New South Wales.”
MORTALITY RATES
The ABS data shows a stable mortality rates overall at 5.13 deaths per 1000 people compared to 5.48 in 2022.
Deaths from COVID-19 dropped from 9862 in 2022 to 5001 in 2023 while numbers and rates of death fell for most other leading causes.
“Despite these drops, virus-related deaths and mortality rates from all causes were still higher than in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we saw record low mortality rates,” Ms Moran said.
Alcohol continued to be a significant factor with 1667 deaths in 2023; this meant an alcohol-related death rate of 5.6 per 100,000 people, down from 6.2 in 2022, but similar to that recorded in 2021.
Between 2018 and 2022, the alcohol related death rate rose steadily from 4.7 to 6.2, the ABS says.
There were 3214 suicides in 2023 (a rate of 12.1 per 100,000 people); men made up around three-quarters of those deaths.
The median age at death for people who died by suicide was 45.5, which means suicide was the leading cause of premature death in 2023.
