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Men in Australia have an average lifespan of 81.1 years, while for women, it extends to 85.1 years.
According to Dr. Sergey Timonin, a demographer at the Australian National University, the stagnation in life expectancy can be traced back to the impact of COVID-19. He noted that Australia’s current life expectancy mirrors that of 2021, a period just before the pandemic led to a significant decline in 2022.
“When we talk about life expectancy remaining unchanged over these three years, it essentially means that the figures for 2024 are similar to those in 2021,” he explained.
Dr. Timonin believes that if COVID-19 had not occurred, the life expectancy today might have been slightly higher, albeit not by a wide margin. He suggests that the trajectory of life expectancy is generally where it was expected to be.
On a different note, the Northern Territory saw the most substantial rise in life expectancy among the Australian states and territories, with an increase of 0.6 years for men and 0.3 years for women during the 2022-24 timeframe.
Where can Australians expect to live the longest?
However, the NT had the largest increase compared to the other states and territory on life expectancy, for both males (0.6 years) and females (0.3 years) in the 2022-24 period.
Credit: SBS News
Moreover, those in the capital cities had higher life expectancy compared to those in remote statistical areas.
Life expectancy also increased the most for Tasmanian men in the state’s south-east, and women in Sydney’s west in Parramatta, Melbourne’s inner-south and Western Australia’s southern outback.
How does Australia compare?
Australia has the 10th highest life expectancy — behind Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Israel, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway.
Credit: SBS News
However, Timonin said this was not a “fair” comparison because it’s comparing annual estimates of life expectancy for OECD countries with Australia’s three-year average.
