Social trends 2001 highlights Australia's health
7 June 2001
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Social Trends 2001 has revealed the highs and lows of our health over the past century, with Australians now enjoying healthier lifestyles and living longer than ever before.
Life expectancy in Australia has improved substantially during the past century, rising from 55 years for men and 59 years for women in 1901–1910 to 76 years for men and almost 82 years for women by the end of the century.
The past century has also seen degenerative diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, replacing infectious diseases as the leading cause of deaths of Australians.
The number of deaths from cancer in Australia, as a proportion of all deaths, has increased significantly in the past 100 years. Cancer accounted for 8 per cent of female deaths and 7 per cent of male deaths in 1909, but by 1999, it had become the cause of about 27 per cent of all deaths among both sexes.
However, death rates from circulatory diseases have dropped after peaking in the 1950s for females and the 1960s for males. Death rates from cancer, stroke and ischaemic heart disease all declined in the period 1989–1999.
Male deaths from lung cancer and prostate cancer and female breast cancer deaths have all declined, but deaths from skin cancer have remained steady.
While fatalities from motor vehicle accidents declined in the past decade, deaths from suicide have remained steady at 13 per 100,000 deaths.
Although Australians appear to be drinking less alcohol, smoking less tobacco and consuming less fat, Australians are using the services of Medicare more than previously. And while we are living longer than ever before, residential aged care places per head of population have fallen each year from 1989 to 1999. There are also fewer hospital beds available and when Australians are hospitalised, the average length of their stay has decreased since 1989 from 5.9 days to 3.9 days in 1999.
Source: Australian Social Trends 2001; Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Last Reviewed: 13 June 2001
- 1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Australian Social Trends 2001.
