This is a snapshot of the latest statistics on COPD in Australia. More detailed information can be found in Asthma in Australia 2011, and in other publications from the AIHW and the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring (ACAM) .
For personal medical advice, see your doctor.
Information in this snapshot was last updated March 2012.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) limits airflow in the lungs. It includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
COPD by the numbers
One third
The death rate from COPD for males in 2009 was one third of that in 1970.
In 1970, the male death rate from COPD was 8 times the female rate. In 2009, the male death rate was only twice the female death rate.
54,244
hospitalisations for COPD in 2009–10. That's 0.6% of all hospitalisations.
Male hospitalisation rates declined between 1998–99 and 2009–10, while female rates were relatively stable.
$560 million
was spent on COPD in the 2004–05 financial year.
That's 1% of all expenditure on diseases.