Notes on the data: Premature mortality by selected cause - 0 to 74 years

Deaths from external causes, persons aged 0 to 74 years, 2017 to 2021

Policy context: Deaths from external causes, commonly described as deaths from accidents and injury, are deaths caused by environmental events and circumstances that are external to the body. External causes of death can be classified as 'unintentional', such as transport accidents (the largest number in this category), falls, and accidental drowning or poisoning; 'intentional', such as suicides (the largest number in this category) and homicides; and those which occur due to the complications of medical and surgical care (commonly referred to as 'adverse events') [1].

Deaths from external causes as a proportion of deaths from all causes vary between age and sex groups. Males are more likely to die prematurely from external causes than females: in 2017 to 2021, almost two thirds (62.2%) of deaths from external were premature - 71.3% for males and 45.7% for females – these and other details are available here. The difference was most notable in the 20 to 24-year age group (in which 2,090 males died from external causes compared to 577 females) [2].

The indicator Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) adds a further dimension to the data on premature deaths, in particular from these causes, which include deaths of many young people, adding to the number of PYLL; click herefor information on that indicator.

Reference

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Causes of death, Australia, 2007. (ABS Cat. no. 3303.0). Canberra: ABS; 2009.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), 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; 2016-2020.

Notes: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes: V01-Y98

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 designated preliminary, the second latest as revised and the data for the remaining years as final. 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: Deaths from external causes at ages 0 to 74 years

Denominator: Population aged 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 population (aged 0 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.