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Australia recorded 188,421 registered deaths in 2025, up 0.6 per cent, with women outliving men and ASIC targeting funeral insurance amid rising costs.
Australia recorded 188,421 registered deaths in 2025, a 0.6 per cent increase from the previous year, according to new data from the Bureau of Statistics. The figures highlight an ageing population, with the median age of death at 79.7 years for males and 84.6 years for females.
Among Australians who lived to 100 or older, women far outnumbered men: 2,392 women died last year, compared with 724 men. This gap reflects broader trends in life expectancy and health outcomes.
Ageing Population and Funeral Insurance
The ageing population has prompted the corporate regulator ASIC to prioritise funeral insurance this year. ASIC says it continues to receive reports from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and consumer groups about this type of insurance, especially where costs exceed benefits.
Funeral insurance is designed to cover burial expenses, but concerns arise when premiums paid over time surpass the eventual payout. ASIC's focus aims to address these issues and protect consumers.
Cost of Living and Inflation Pressures
In its official inflation report this week, the ABS said builders are passing on rising labour and material costs to customers through higher project home prices. A key factor is how much businesses are passing on higher costs from the war in the Middle East to consumers.
The ABS also found that games, toys and hobbies were 12.7 per cent more expensive in the year to August, due to price increases in computer chips being passed on to consumers. A global rush to invest in artificial intelligence is placing pressure on chip makers to keep up with demand.
MooMoo chief market strategist Tapas Strickland told SBS On the Money Podcast that one US company was able to lift prices on chips it rents out by about 20 per cent, indicating a structural shift in the market.
Electric Vehicle Market and Charging Infrastructure
In a significant move for the car market, Ampol has offered to pay $225 million to buy ultra-fast electric car charging firm Evie Networks. The proposed merged group would become the largest public DC fast charging network by number of bays in Australia, with around 1,424 DC public charging spots, leapfrogging Tesla which has 1,230.
The company says battery electric vehicle sales have exceeded 20 per cent of new cars sold on average over the last five months, while public charging infrastructure has lagged BEV uptake. This comes as the Electric Vehicle Council said a record 103,716 battery electric vehicles were sold in the first half of 2026, along with 54,241 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
However, the EV transition for electric trucks and vans is happening at a crawl, with sales in that category representing less than 1 per cent of their respective markets. The data underscores the uneven pace of electrification across vehicle types.
Australia Bureau Of Statistics Ampol Evie Networks Electric Vehicles ASIC Funeral Insurance
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