Heart disease has been the leading cause of death for Australians since the 1960s. It’s about to be overtaken.
Dementia is poised to become the nation’s biggest killer as advances in medicine and the ageing of the population are transforming how we die.
The bureau’s head of mortality statistics, Lauren Moran, said a combination of factors was changing the leading causes of death. Last year, the median age of death from heart disease was 83.4 years, while for those with dementia the median age has climbed to 88.7.The Bureau of Statistics noted that since 1974, the mortality rate for heart disease has fallen by 87.9 per cent, while it has increased by 843 per cent for dementia.Dementia is already the leading cause of death among women, accounting for 12.2 per cent of all female deaths last year.
Death rates for heart disease and dementia fell in 2020 and 2021, largely due to COVID-related restrictions that reduced the transmission of respiratory diseases. This turned around in 2022, largely due to the Omicron variant that swept through the country.The COVID wave of 2022 was the first time in more than 50 years that an infectious disease was among the leading causes of death.
In the early 1970s, more than 3000 people a year died in car accidents. Despite millions of extra motorists on the nation’s roads, there were 1290 car-related deaths in 2023.
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