Notes on the data: Aboriginal premature mortality by selected cause

Deaths from suicide and self-inflicted injuries, Aboriginal people aged 0 to 74 years, 2018 to 2022

Policy context: In many First Nations communities, reducing suicide rates and suicidal behaviour is a serious concern, and it is a public health priority for all Australian governments. In 2018 to 2022, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 975 deaths were due to suicide, a rate of 20.1 deaths per 100,000 population. Over the period 2018 to 2022, suicide accounted for 5.3% of all deaths among First Nations people, with males experiencing a greater proportion of suicide deaths out of all causes of deaths compared to females (7.0% and 3.2% respectively) [2].

Some 6.9% of all deaths of Aboriginal people occurring before 75 years of age were due to suicide.

The data show that, for 2018 to 2022, almost all (99.7%) deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from external causes occurred before 75 years of age (one and a half times the proportion for non-Indigenous Australians), 98.0% before 65 years and 93.2% before 55 years – details here. This was higher than the proportion for the non-Indigenous population at ages 0 to 74 years (99.7% c.f. 91.7%).

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Suicide and self-harm monitoring, Suicide among First Nations People. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/populations-age-groups/suicide-indigenous-australians; last accessed: 13 September 2024.
Data calculated by PHIDU from data cited in Source, below.

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

Deaths data

For deaths data 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 is preliminary, the second latest is revised and the data for the remaining years is 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.

However, data published here are from the following releases: 2018, 2019 and 2020 final; and 2021 and 2022 preliminary..

Data quality

Almost all deaths in Australia are registered. However, Indigenous status is not always recorded, or recorded correctly. The incompleteness of Indigenous identification (referred to as completeness of coverage) means that the number of deaths registered as Indigenous is an underestimate of the actual number of deaths which occur in the Indigenous population. It should also be noted that completeness of coverage is likely to vary between geographical areas.

While there is incomplete coverage of Indigenous deaths in all state and territory registration systems, some jurisdictions have been assessed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as having a sufficient level of coverage to enable statistics on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mortality to be produced. Those jurisdictions are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Geography: Data available by Indigenous Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic outcomes (based on IRSEO) and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Aboriginal deaths from suicide and self-inflicted injuries at ages 0 to 74 years

Denominator: Aboriginal population aged 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 Aboriginal 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 2018 to 2022 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. ABS estimated resident population (produced as a consultancy for PHIDU), 30 June 2021