Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts

Age-standardisation is a method of removing the influence of age when comparing populations with different age structures – either different populations at one time or the same population at different times.

Direct age-standardisation was used in this report. The Australian estimated resident population as at 30 June 2001 has been used as the standard population.

The observed value of a rate may vary because of the influence of chance and natural variation. To provide an indication of whether 2 rates are statistically different, 95% confidence intervals can be calculated, and statistically significant differences highlighted.

A 95% confidence interval describes a span of numbers around the estimate which has a 95% chance of including the true value. When comparing 2 groups, if the 2 confidence intervals do not overlap, the reader can be confident that the difference between the groups is real, and not due to chance.

Confidence intervals were calculated for survey data in this report.

Comparisons of regions in this report use the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 Remoteness Structure, which groups Australian regions into 5 remoteness areas. 

The remoteness areas are Major cities, Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote. These areas are defined using the Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia Plus (ARIA+), which is a measure of the remoteness of a location from the services that large towns or cities provide.

The IRSD values used in this report are based on the 2021 Census.

In some instances, data for remoteness areas have been combined because of small sample sizes.

It is possible that not every record in a data set will correspond directly to a remoteness area. Where data do not correspond, they have been excluded from analyses by remoteness area.

Further information on the ASGS is available on the ABS website.

Socioeconomic classifications in this report are based on the ABS Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD). Geographic areas are assigned a score based on social and economic characteristics of that area, such as income, educational attainment, public sector housing, unemployment and jobs in low-skill occupations. The IRSD relates to the average disadvantage of all people living in a geographical area. It cannot be presumed to apply to all individuals living in the area.

For the analyses in this report, the population is divided into 5 socioeconomic areas, with roughly equal populations (each around 20% of the total), based on the level of disadvantage of the statistical local area of their usual residence. The first group includes the 20% of areas with the highest levels of relative disadvantage (referred to as Group 1, lowest or most disadvantaged), while the last group includes the 20% of areas with the lowest levels of relative disadvantage (referred to as Group 5, highest or least disadvantaged).

The IRSD values used in this report are based on the 2021 Census.

It is possible that not every record in a dataset will correspond directly to one of these socioeconomic areas. Where data do not correspond, they have been excluded from analyses by socioeconomic area.

Further information is available on the ABS website.

In this report, comparisons are made between First Nations people and people who do not identify as Indigenous.

People with ‘not-stated’ Indigenous status are excluded from any analysis by Indigenous status.

National populations

Population data are used throughout this report to calculate rates. The population data used are estimated resident populations (ERPs) derived from the ABS Census of Population and Housing. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting Australian Government closure of the international border from 20 March 2020, caused significant disruptions to the usual Australian population trends. This may complicate interpretation of statistics calculated from ERPs in this COVID period. For example, rates and proportions may be greater than in previous years due to decreases in the denominator (population size) of some sub-populations.

For more information: National, state and territory population, June 2021 | Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Throughout this report, rates of deaths and hospitalisations are age-standardised. In these cases, the standard population used to calculate the age-standardised rate is the Australian ERP as at 30 June 2001.

First Nations populations

The ABS 2021 Census based medium series Indigenous population projections were used to derive rates (ABS 2024). To calculate non-Indigenous estimates, the Indigenous projections was subtracted from the total Australian estimated resident population data.

Reporting on priority populations

Some people in Australia experience inequitable health outcomes and a higher burden of disease due to social, economic and structural factors that influence access to resources, opportunities and health care. These people are referred to as ‘priority populations’ in this report. Priority populations include, but are not limited to, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds; people living with disability or mental illness; people living in remote, rural and regional areas; and people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.

People may identify with, or be affected by, more than one of these circumstances, which can intersect and shape their experiences of health and health care. Improving health equity requires approaches that recognise people’s strengths, preferences and lived experience, and that support shared decision making. Tailored, culturally safe and accessible health care is needed to improve prevention, early intervention and the management of chronic conditions for people within priority populations.

This report presents information for priority populations where nationally consistent data are available. In this report, analyses include disaggregation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, remoteness area and socioeconomic area. Availability and quality of data vary across population groups and data sources, and not all priority populations are able to be reported on consistently.

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2009) Causes of death, 2007, ABS, Australian Government.

ABS (2024) Estimates and projections, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, ABS, Australian Government

ACCD (Australian Consortium for Classification Development) (2022) The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) – 12^th edition. Tabular list of diseases, and alphabetic index of diseases, Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, Adelaide.

ACCD (2022a) The Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) – 12th edition. Tabular list of interventions, and alphabetic index of interventions, Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, Adelaide.

IHACPA (Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority) (2022) Emergency Department ICD-10-AM Principal Diagnosis Short List, IHACPA, Australian Government, accessed 30 November 2022.

WHO (World Health Organization) (2019) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10), WHO, Geneva.