How many people died due to or with COVID-19?
This section explores deaths due to COVID-19 and deaths with COVID -19 among people diagnosed with COVID-19 up to 31 December 2022. Deaths due to COVID-19 are measured using the case fatality rate (defined as the proportion of notified cases that result in death due to COVID-19).
Classification of COVID-19 related deaths and interpreting findings
In this report, COVID-19 related deaths are classified as follows:
Deaths due to COVID-19: refers to deaths with COVID-19 as an underlying cause of death, meaning COVID-19 initiated the sequence of events resulting in death. These deaths have an underlying cause of death recorded in the National Death Index as U07.1 COVID-19 virus identified; U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified; or U10.9 Multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19.
Deaths with COVID-19: refers to deaths with COVID-19 as an associated cause of death, meaning COVID-19 contributed to the death but was not the underlying cause. These deaths have an associated cause of death recorded in the National Death Index as U07.1 COVID-19 virus identified; U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified; or U09.9 Post COVID-19 condition, unspecified.
At the time of analysis, cause of death information was not available for deaths that occurred post 31 December 2022. Further, the number of COVID-19 deaths in this report is slightly lower than that reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Missing deaths may be due to not having a COVID-19 notification, differences in cause of death information available in Version 2.6 of the COVID-19 Register and/or deaths data that could not be linked.
To aid in interpreting findings, 95% confidence intervals are included to show the range of uncertainty around each estimate (that is, that 95 out of 100 times the estimate will fall between the upper and lower values). A wider confidence interval band means greater uncertainty. In this report, when confidence intervals of two different estimates do not overlap, the difference between estimates is likely to be statistically significant.
See Technical notes for details on methods and data sources used.
A total of 11,062 people with a reported COVID-19 diagnosis died due to COVID-19 by the end of 2022. The overall case fatality rate was 0.13%. Although most deaths occurred (80%) during the Omicron period, the case fatality rate was 10 times lower in this period (0.11%) compared with the pre-Omicron period (1.1%) (Table 1).
In addition to those who died due to COVID-19, a further 2,475 people died with COVID-19 listed recorded as an associated cause by the end of 2022. The percentage of people who died with COVID-19 was the same for both the pre-Omicron and Omicron periods, at 0.03% (1 in 3,000 cases) but was higher for older people, for example the percentage was 0.16% (1 in 600 cases) for those aged 60 and over during the Omicron period.
COVID-19 wave | Number of people with a COVID-19 diagnosis | Number of deaths due to COVID-19 | Case fatality rate (%) | Number of deaths with COVID-19 | Per cent of deaths with COVID-19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre-Omicron | 196,732 | 2,202 | 1.12 | 66 | 0.03 |
Omicron | 8,273,941 | 8,860 | 0.11 | 2,409 | 0.03 |
Total | 8,470,673 | 11,062 | 0.13 | 2,475 | 0.03 |
Notes:
- Cause of death information in the National Death Index is subject to a revisions process. In this analysis data is final for 2020, revised for 2021, and preliminary revised for 2022. Cause of death information for people who died in 2023 was not available in Version 2.6 of the COVID-19 Register.
- People are counted in each wave based on their first reported COVID-19 diagnosis date. Note this excludes COVID-19 cases from Western Australia.
- Includes deaths that occurred up to 21 days before diagnosis, due to potential delays in notifications.
- 'Per cent of deaths with COVID-19’ refers to total deaths with COVID-19 as an associated cause of death from all deaths that occurred during that time period.
- See Technical notes for definition of case fatality rate and people who died due to or with COVID-19.
Source: AIHW COVID-19 Register (version 2.6)
Declining case fatality rates have been observed during the Omicron period in Australia and over time in international studies, which is likely due to the protective effects of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity (AIHW 2022; VRDEST 2024; Liu et al. 2023, Xia et al. 2024).
Case fatality rates during the Omicron period
The case fatality rate during Omicron up to the end of 2022 (Figure 4):
- was 1.4 times as high for males (0.13%) compared with females (0.09%), overall.
- increased with age (for example, from 0.4% for those aged 70 to 79 to 4.7% for those 90 and over) and was highest for males aged 90 or over (5.9%).
- was 0.04% in people who had more than one reported COVID-19 infection and 0.11% in people who had COVID-19 only once. This could be related to a number of factors, including the younger age profile of people with repeated COVID-19 infections (see Subsequent notified infections (reinfections).
Figure 4: Deaths due to COVID-19 (number and case fatality rate) by age group and sex, during Omicron (to 31 December 2022)
Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rates by age group and sex. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation, or by other population groups (remoteness area and socioeconomic group).
Notes:
- Deaths due to COVID-19 include those that occurred after a reported COVID-19 diagnosis, regardless of time period, or up to 21 days prior to diagnosis.
- See Technical notes for details on cause of death information sources and the definition of case fatality rate.
Remoteness area and socioeconomic groups
During the Omicron wave, the COVID-19 case fatality rate was similar across Major cities and regional areas (0.11%), and slightly lower in Remote and very remote areas (0.08%).
The case fatality rate decreased with higher socioeconomic group – from 0.15% in the lowest group to 0.08% in the highest group (Figure 5).
Case fatality rates were consistently higher in males than females across all remoteness areas, and socioeconomic groups.
Figure 5: Deaths due to COVID-19 (number and case fatality rate) by population groups (to 31 December 2022)
Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rates by age group and sex. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation, or by other population groups (remoteness area and socioeconomic group).
Notes:
- Deaths due to COVID-19 include those that occurred after a reported COVID-19 diagnosis, regardless of time period, or up to 21 days prior to diagnosis.
- See Technical notes for details on cause of death information sources and the definition of case fatality rate.
See Data tables to access downloadable data containing COVID-19 related deaths data.
ABS (2024) COVID-19 Mortality in Australia: Deaths registered until 31 January 2024, ABS, Australian Government, accessed 13 November 2024.
AIHW (2022) Australia’s health 2022: data insights, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 13 November 2024. doi:10.25816/ggvz-vr80.
VRDEST (Viral Respiratory Diseases Epidemiology and Surveillance Team) (2024) ‘COVID-19 Australia: Epidemiology Report 85: Reporting period ending 10 March 2024’, Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 48, accessed 13 November 2024, doi:10.33321/cdi.2024.48.11.
Liu J, Wei H, and He D (2023) ‘Differences in case-fatality-rate of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants’, Public Health in Practice (Oxf), 5:100350, access 13 November 2024, doi:10.1016/j.puhip.2022.100350.
Xia Q, Yang Y, Wang F, Huang Z, Qiu W and Mao A (2024) ‘Case fatality rates of COVID‐19 during epidemic periods of variants of concern: A meta-analysis by continents’, International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 141:106950, accessed 13 November 2024, doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2024.01.017.