Australians living longer
An Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report, released last week, shows the highest life expectancy estimates ever recorded in Australia.
ABS director of demography, Bjorn Jarvis, says “a boy born today can expect to live 79.9 years, while a girl can expect to live 84.3 years.”
For those approaching retirement age (65 years), males can expect to live a further 19 years and females a further 22 years.
“Australia's life expectancy at birth continues to be amongst the highest in the world. The combined male and female figure of 82 years, while a little lower than Japan and Hong Kong, is higher than Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA,” Mr Jarvis says.
The Australian Capital Territory had the highest life expectancy at birth with 81.2 years for males and 85.1 years for females. The lowest life expectancy was in the Northern Territory, at 74.7 years for males and 80 years for females.
While there are 147,098 deaths registered in Australia, the standardised death rate fell to 5.5 deaths per 1,000 people, the lowest rate ever recorded in Australia.
