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

Potential years of life lost from deaths of males/ females/ persons aged 0 to 74 years, by sex, 2018 to 2022

Policy context: Potential years of life lost from deaths can be used to estimate the burden of mortality, which is the loss associated with early death [1]. As noted for premature mortality, above, some 33.4% of deaths over the years 2018 to 2022 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 2022, there were 944,599 PYLLs in Australia, a 90% drop from 382 per 1,000 people (in 1907) to 39 per 1,000 people (in 2022) [1]. Males are more likely to experience premature death, however over time the difference between the sexes is narrowing as:

In 1980, there were 109 PYLLs per 1,000 males and 58 PYLLs per 1,000 females (a difference of 51 PYLL per 1,000);
In 2022, there were 49 PYLLs per 1,000 males and 30 PYLLs per 1,000 females (a difference of 19 PYLLs per 1,000).

Some notable variations shown by the data for the five years 2018 to 2022 [2] are:

the range between the States and Territories was from 32.7 PYLLs per 1,000 population in the Australian Capital Territory and 35.7 in Victoria, to 43.4 PYLLs per 1,000 population in Tasmania and 78.8 in the Northern Territory;
the capital cities in these two latter jurisdictions had the highest rates, with the lowest in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra;
Hobart had the second highest rate for females, after Darwin;
the rate of PYLLs for people who lived in the most disadvantaged areas was over twice that in the least disadvantaged areas across Australia (25.0 PYLLs per 1,000 for least disadvantaged, and 53.6 PYLLs for most disadvantaged; and
for those living in the Very Remote areas, PYLL rates were over two and a half (2.6) times those in the Major Cities [2].

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; 2018 to 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: 2018, 2019 and 2020 final; and 2021 and 2022 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 74 years over the years 2018 to 2022

Denominator: Males, females, persons aged 0 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 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. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2018 to 30 June 2022.