Life expectancy falls in Australia for the first time in decades

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For the first time since the mid-1990s, life expectancy in Australia has fallen, a new government report on the health of the nation shows.

Australia ranks fourth highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, coming in only behind Japan, Korea and Switzerland.

A boy and a girl born in Australia in 2020–2022 can expect to live on average 81.2 years and 85.3 years respectively, according to Australia's Health 2024, a report released every two years by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

However, these numbers are a small dip in the life expectancy in Australia recorded from 2019-2021. During the two-year period from 2020-2022, life expectancy decreased by 0.1 years for males and females.

The fall in life expectancy is likely due to the number of deaths due to COVID-19. Almost half of the deaths in 2022 were linked to COVID-19.

"Even though life expectancy in Australia decreased in 2020–2022, it was still higher than it was in 2017–2019, prior to the pandemic, by 0.3 years for males and females," AIHW Deputy Chief Executive Officer Matthew James said

"COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in Australia in 2022, marking the first time in over 50 years that an infectious disease has been in the top 5 causes of death."

Falling life expectancies due to COVID-19 were worse in the US and the UK. In Britain, life expectancy dropped from 81.3 in 2019 to 80.4 in 2020.

In the US, life expectancy fell by more than two years, from 78.9 in 2019 to 76.4 in 2021.

The report also found that while Australians were living more years in good health, the years they spent in ill-health was also increasing.

Chronic conditions are on the rise, the report noted, with the majority of Australians - about six in 10 - now living with a chronic illness.

In the future, more and more people will be living with multiple chronic conditions.

About 90 percent of deaths in Australia between 2002 to 2022 were due to chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and dementia.

The report also detailed Australia's spending on health, which was about $241 billion in 2021-2022.

As a proportion of GDP, Australia is ranked 15th for spending on health, compared to 38 OECD nations.