Notes on the data: Youth mortality: Death of persons aged 15 to 24 years

Total deaths, persons aged 15 to 24 years, 2017 to 2021

Policy context: In 2022 there were 1,134 deaths of persons aged 15 to 24 years, of which over two thirds (69.9%) were male deaths.

The age-specific death rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males and females in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory over the years 2014 to 2018 were 2.1 and 2.9 times higher than for non-Indigenous males and females, respectively. Note that this information is not available for Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

Additional information:

Although it is not possible to present data for deaths at these ages by specific causes, the following information may be of interest.

In 2021, just over one third (34.0%) of male deaths and over one third (35.6%) of female deaths between 15 and 24 years of age were from intentional self-harm (suicide). The proportion for males was lower than the 37.8% in 2021; and for females it was higher than the 32.3% in 2021. The next highest proportion for females was deaths as an occupant of a car injured in a transport accident (15.8%), with a higher proportion for males (23.8%). The number of suicides should be interpreted with caution, as they will increase when the ABS revisions process is applied (see ‘Notes’, below).[1]

Reference

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 3303.0 Causes of Death, Australia, 2022. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/2022#overview-of-leading-causes-of-death; last accessed 4 December 2023

Notes: For detailed data files released since 2007, the ABS has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data are designated preliminary, the second latest as revised and the data for the remaining years as final. For further information about the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

Data published here are from the following releases: 2017, final; 2018, revised; and 2019, 2020 and 2021, preliminary. Some causes of death, including drug-induced deaths, suicide and assault, are more sensitive to the revisions process than others: as a result, data in the files designated as preliminary should be treated with caution.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: All deaths of people aged 15 to 24 years

Denominator: Total population aged 15 to 24 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 population (aged 15 to 24 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard.

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2017 to 2021 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information system. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2017 to 30 June 2021.