Notes on the data: Potential years of life lost, by age and sex

Potential years of life lost from deaths of males/ females/ persons by broad age groups 0 to 14, 15 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 64 and 65 to 75 years, 2017 to 2021

Policy context: As noted for premature mortality, above, some 34% of deaths over the years 2017 to 2021 occurred before 75 years of age, although the proportion varies by sex and by cause, as shown here.

However, depending on the age at which a person dies, the number of years of life lost had they lived until, say, 74 years of age will vary. Potential years of life lost (PYLL) is a measure of the sum of the potential years of life lost from deaths at 15 years (59 years), 45 years (29 years) and so on, assuming they had all lived to 74 years of age.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare note that, on this measure, a particular PYLL value will be higher if mortality among children or young people is high; chronic diseases causing death among older people, on the other hand, have little effect on these values [1]. In Australia, there were 894,600 PYLL each year over the five years 2017 to 2021, close to two thirds of which were for males (62.9%) and over one third for females (37.1%) [2]. This represents a decrease of 90% from 1907, when there were 382 PYLLs per 1,000 population, to 2021, when this figure was 37.5 PYLLs per 1,000 population; the male rate declined by 88.384% and the female rate by 92.1% [3].

Some notable variations in the data sex by age and for the five years 2017 to 2021 [2] are:

rates for males were above those ofr females in all age groups studied;
the largest differences were in the 15 to 24, and 25 to 44 year age groups, where the rates for males were 2.37 times and 2.03 times, respectively, those for females;
differences in the other age groups studied showed male rates to be 21% higher at ages 0 to 14 years, 67% higher at ages 45 to 64 years, and 65% higher at ages 65 to 74 years;

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Deaths in Australia. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/web/152/deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/age-at-death; last accessed 3 February 2020.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), based on 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; 2017 to 2021.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Deaths in Australia. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/data; last accessed 21 March 2022.

Notes: For detailed data files released since 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (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 preliminary, the second latest are revised and the data for the earlier years are final. In this way, the majority of records are released earlier than would be the case than were no data released until files had been returned from Coroners’ offices. For further information about the 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.

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: The sum of the number of years between the actual age at death and 75 years of age for all deaths of each of males, females, persons aged 0 to 14, 15 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 64, and 65 to 74 years over the years 2017 to 2021

Denominator: Males, females, persons aged 0 to 14, 15 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 64, and 65 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate of potential years of life lost per 1,000 population (aged 0 to 14, 15 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 64, and 65 to 74 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.