GOVERNMENT TOOLS

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, became Australia’s leading cause of death in 2024, overtaking ischaemic heart disease.
The shift reflects a simple demographic truth: more Australians are living to ages where chronic, later-life conditions dominate.
Looking only at ‘number of deaths’ can hide premature mortality. By years of potential life lost (YPLL), suicide is the leading cause of premature death.
Place still matters. Mortality patterns vary by remoteness and socio-economic context, shaping where prevention and support are needed most.
Planning for an older Australia means planning for long-term care needs, service accessibility and community supports - not just hospital demand.

Glenn Capuano

Demographer

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What the ABS 'Causes of Death' Data Means

There has been a changing of the guard in Australia in the way we die. And it’s entirely due to our ageing population: Australians are increasingly living long enough that the main causes of death are diseases primarily of old age.

The data comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) annual publication Causes of Death, Australia, released each year. This release relates to calendar year 2024.

While the total number of deaths and death rates are most important for population forecasting, causes of death still offer useful insight. They don’t just tell us what people are dying from, they also help show how Australia’s changing age profile is reshaping health outcomes.

In calendar year 2024, there were 187,268 deaths Australia-wide. Of these, 17,549 were from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, slightly higher than ischaemic heart diseases (16,275, a small fall from the previous year). Heart disease remained the biggest killer for men, with over 10,000 deaths, more than 10% of the male total. For women, dementia was higher by a significant margin, reflecting women’s longer life expectancy.

Top 10 Broad Causes of Death, Australia, 2024

Broad Cause of Death	Males	Females	Total deaths
Dementia, including Alzheimer's disease	6602	10,947	17,549
Ischaemic heart diseases	10,153	6,122	16,275
Chronic lower respiratory diseases (inc. COVID-19)	4,572	4,657	9,229
Cerebrovascular diseases	4,079	5,068	9,147
Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung (cancers)	5,244	3,875	9,119
Diabetes	3,304	2,661	5,965
Malignant neoplasm of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus (cancers)	2,898	2,489	5,387
Accidental falls including fractures	2613	2566	5,179
Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue (cancers)	3043	2120	5,163
Diseases of the urinary system	2216	2594	4,810
All causes	98467	88801	187,268

This is the top 10 list of broad causes of death Australia-wide in 2024, by sex. The cause descriptions are technical (they come directly from the ABS classification), so the bracketed wording is included here purely as plain-English context.

Three of the top 10 causes are different types of cancers (referred to as ‘malignant neoplasms’ in the causes dataset). There are good reasons they’re separated in the medical classification, but in the public mind, cancer is often grouped as one category. If cancers were grouped together, cancer would still be the leading cause of death overall.

A few years ago, this conversation would have focused heavily on COVID-19. It was the third largest cause of death in 2022, dropped to ninth in 2023 and is now 12th in 2024. It’s still present, but no longer dominating the ranking.

Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL): a Different View of Mortality

Because dementia, and to a lesser extent heart disease and cancer, are largely diseases of older age, it’s worth looking at another ABS measure that is less widely used: years of potential life lost (YPLL).

YPLL looks at premature deaths by comparing age at death to an assumed life expectancy threshold. In the ABS measure used here, deaths under age 78 are treated as premature. This can produce a very different picture of health burden, because a smaller number of deaths at younger ages can result in a large number of years of life lost.

In 2024, total years of potential life lost across Australia was 1,009,187. That’s more than a million years of potential life lost due to premature deaths.

By this measure, malignant neoplasms (cancer) account for the most years of potential life lost at 308,835 years, around 31% of total YPLL.

Intentional self-harm (suicide) is the second-biggest contributor on this measure, resulting in 107,215 YPLL. Suicide deaths (3,305) were only 1.8% of total deaths, but the median age at death was 46, meaning the loss of potential life is much higher than for causes concentrated at older ages. As a result, suicide accounted for more than 10% of total YPLL.

Because more than 75% of suicide deaths are males, this (along with higher rates from accidents and other external causes) leads to a very skewed distribution of YPLL by sex. Males accounted for 647,278 YPLL, close to two thirds of the total, with females accounting for 365,119 years. What this suggests is that while both men and women die from diseases of older age, men are more likely to die prematurely through external causes.

Alcohol and Drug-Induced Deaths: Disadvantage Matters

In the previous article on total death rates, the focus was on how where people live influences how long they live. The causes of death publication does not go much deeper geographically (it doesn’t break down below state level), but it does include an additional breakdown that’s both new and important: alcohol and drug-induced deaths by the SEIFA Index of Disadvantage.

SEIFA measures the overall level of disadvantage in an area using indicators such as income, employment, occupation and education.

Even without fine geographic detail, this breakdown is powerful because it shows a clear social gradient in preventable deaths.

If you live in the most disadvantaged 20% of areas in Australia, you are approximately four times as likely to die of alcohol and drug-related causes as someone in the least disadvantaged 20%.

Alcohol and Drug Related Deaths and Death Rates, 2024

SEIFA Index of Disadvantage	Number of deaths	Standardised Death Rate
Quintile 1 (most disadvantaged)	1208	23.4
Quintile 2	861	15.5
Quintile 3	642	10.9
Quintile 4	526	8.9
Quintile 5 (least disadvantaged)	391	6.9

Source: ABS, Causes of Death, Australia, 2024

If the goal is improving quality of life and public health outcomes, this is the kind of evidence that matters. For teams working in public health and local government, it points to where prevention, treatment access and support are likely to have the greatest impact. It also highlights the value of bringing together health and demographic data to identify which communities face the greatest risk and where services may need to be strengthened.

Why This Matters for Population Change and Planning

A demographic lens on causes of death helps show the impact of changing population structures in Australia. Overwhelmingly, it highlights the effect of an ageing population.

National population forecasts from .id show the population aged 85+ as the fastest-growing age cohort, rising from about 530,000 people in 2021 to 1.5 million by 2046. This reflects longer life expectancy, but it will also shift Australia’s mortality profile further towards diseases of older age and increase the need for services that support people living with long-term, age-related health conditions.

If you work in aged care, or are responsible for planning decisions where age is a factor, we recommend our free report Caring for an Ageing Australia, which contains new data on ageing patterns and a practical framework for responding to change.

If you or anyone you know needs support

Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636
MensLine Australia: 1300 789 978
13YARN: 13 92 76
Kids Helpline (for young people aged five to 25): 1800 551 800
National Alcohol and Other Drugs Hotline: 1800 250 015

Image: @toa55 via Canva

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