Covid deaths push life expectancy lower

Life expectancy in Australia has recorded its second drop in a row, with more deaths from Covid behind the bad news.

A baby boy born in Australia today can expect to live to 81.1 years and a baby girl to 85.1 years.

Deaths from Covid-19 have seen Australia’s life expectancy fall for the second year in a row, but it’s likely a blip rather than us having reached “peak age”.

Despite the decline, Australia remains among the top four longest-living developed countries, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

At a state level those living in the ACT and Western Australia have the highest life expectancy, with Northern Territory residents the lowest, the ABS data reveals.

“A boy born (in Australia) today is expected to live to 81.1 years and a girl to 85.1 years,” ABS head of demography Beidar Cho said. “The years 2021-2023 saw the highest number of Covid-19 deaths with 15,982 in Australia, which was 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.”

Life expectancy data was calculated over three years, so the high number of Covid deaths in 2022 wouldn’t work through the data until the 2026 figures were published, Dr Cho said.

“We are seeing that once the Covid-affected data passes most of our trends are returning to pre-Covid trends. Having the 2022 highly Covid-affected data out of our calculations is expected to normalise our life expectancy trends.”

The data shows Australia sits equal fourth alongside Spain for life expectancy in developed countries, behind Japan, Switzerland and South Korea.

“Australians still have a higher life expectancy than many comparable countries, like New Zealand (82.3 years), the United Kingdom (80.4 years), the US (76.4 years), and Canada (81.6 years),“ Dr Cho said.

The ABS data also looks at how long Australians of each age can expect to live. For instance a 60 year-old man can 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.

The ACT had the highest male life expectancy (81.7 years), followed by Western Australia (81.6 years) and Victoria (81.5 years).

For females the ACT and Western Australia had the highest female life expectancy (85.7 years), followed by Victoria (85.4 years) and NSW (85.2 years).

The Northern Territory had the lowest life expectancy for both men (76.4 years) and women (80.4 years).