The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has reported that babies born in Australia in the past two years have the highest estimated life expectancy ever recorded in the country according to the latest figures it has collated.
Demography Director at ABS, Beidar Cho said male life expectancy at birth reached 81.2 years in 2018-2020, increasing from 80.9 in 2017-2019, and female life expectancy increased to 85.3 years from 85.0 in the previous year.
“Life expectancy for males has improved at a faster rate than that for females,” Ms Cho said.
“Around 30 years ago (1990), life expectancy at birth in Australia was 73.9 years for males and 80.1 years for females, a gap of 6.2 years,” she said.
“The gap has now narrowed to 4.1 years in 2018-2020.”
Ms Cho said Australians had a higher life expectancy than comparable countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US, but had a lower life expectancy than Japan, Singapore and Switzerland.
“Today an Australian male aged 50 years can expect to live another 33.2 years and a female another 36.6 years,” she said.
“This is longer than life expectancies at birth, as 50 year olds have successfully made it through the first several decades of life.”
The Demography Director said the Australian Capital Territory recorded the highest male and female life expectancy, 82.1 years and 85.9 years respectively, while the Northern Territory recorded the lowest life expectancy for both males (76.2 years) and females (81.0 years).
“Despite this, male and female life expectancies in the Northern Territory showed the largest gains of all the States and Territories over the last 30 years (9.9 years and 8.7 years),” Ms Cho said.
Further information on the ABS’s life expectancy figures can be accessed at this PS News link.
