The ACT has the highest life expectancy of anywhere in the country. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Canberrans can expect to live longer than anyone else in the country, according to newly released data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Life expectancy for residents of the Australian Capital Territory is above that for those from all other states and territories.
That applies for ACT males, with a life expectancy of 82.0 years and ACT females at 85.8 years, the Bureau (ABS) says.
The Northern Territory has had the largest increase for both males (0.6 years) and females (0.3 years), but also recorded the lowest overall life expectancy for both males (77.0 years) and females (80.7 years) of all the states and territories.
The ABS data shows life expectancy for the nation as a whole remained unchanged in the 2022-2024 period, compared to the previous three-year period.
For Australian men it is 81.1 years and for Australian women it is 85.1.
Life expectancy at birth was generally higher in capital cities than remote regions.
“Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex could be expected to live, assuming current age-sex specific death rates are experienced throughout their lifetime,” the ABS data states.
“This release presents life expectancy estimates based on deaths that occurred in the 2022–2024 period; a time period that was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In 2022, Australia recorded high levels of excess mortality, with the number of deaths increasing by almost 20,000 from 2021 and COVID-19 causing over 10,000 deaths.
“In 2023, around 5000 deaths were registered that were due to COVID-19, and around 4000 in 2024.
“For all causes combined, total registered deaths have decreased compared with 2022, but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.”
Based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates, Australia has the 10th highest life expectancy when compared internationally.
Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Israel, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway had higher life expectancies than Australia over the period of the data collection.
Australians’ life expectancy was unchanged from 2021–2023, following decreases in that period and the previous period (2020–2022), which were the first decreases since the mid-1990s.
While life expectancy at birth for males and females has remained unchanged since the previous three-year period, over the past decade it increased by 0.8 years for males and 0.7 years for females.
The difference in life expectancy between males and females is 4.0 years.
Three decades ago, in 1994, life expectancy at birth was 75.0 years for males and 80.9 years for females, a difference of 5.9 years.
