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

Total deaths, persons aged 15 to 24 years, 2018 to 2022

Policy context: In 2022 the leading cause of deaths for 15-24 years of age was suicide, followed by land transport accidents [1]. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth, significantly higher rates of suicide are experienced compared to non-Indigenous youth [1]. Risk factors for youth suicide include social determinants of health such as educational disadvantage, exposure to adverse life events, social and cultural disadvantage [1].

The number of suicides should be interpreted with caution, as they are likely to increase as the ABS revisions process is applied (see ‘Notes’, below).

Reference

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Deaths in Australia. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/summary; last accessed 5th of September 2024.

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: 2018, 2019 and 2020, final; and 2021 and 2022, 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 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. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2018 to 30 June 2022.