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.
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 .Life expectancy has fallen for Australians for the first time in decades.
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. "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.The report also found that while Australians were living more years in good health, the years they spent in ill-health was also increasing.