The life expectancy of Australians has dropped for the second straight year.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that a boy born today would be expected to live to 81.1 years and a girl to 85.1 years.
ABS Head of Demography Beidar Cho said the years between 2021-2023 saw the highest number of COVID-19 deaths (15,982) in Australia, up by 4100 from 2020-2022.
“As a result, life expectancy has fallen by 0.1 years for men and 0.2 years for women over this period,” Ms Cho said.
“Despite this decrease, Australians still have a higher life expectancy than many comparable countries, like New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada.”
She said today, a 60-year-old Australian man could expect to live another 24.2 years, and a woman another 27.1 years.
“This is longer than life expectancy at birth, as 60-year-olds have already survived the first several decades of life.”
Ms Cho said the Australian Capital Territory had the highest male life expectancy of 81.7 years, followed by Western Australia (81.6 years) and Victoria (81.5 years).
She said the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia had the highest female life expectancy (85.7 years), followed by Victoria (85.4 years) and New South Wales (85.2 years).
“The Northern Territory had the lowest life expectancy for both men (76.4 years) and women (80.4 years), however, it saw the largest rise in male and female life expectancies from 2013-2023, with 1.5 years and 1.2 years respectively.”
