Trends in injury deaths, Australia, 1999–00 to 2016–17

This section provides:

• a brief overview of homicide deaths in 2016–17
• a description of trends in homicide deaths from 1999–00 to 2016–17.

Variation in numbers for this cause of death must be interpreted with caution, for reasons described in Section 11.4, Appendix A, and as previously reported for 1999–2010 (AIHW: Harrison & Henley 2015).

What methods were used?

The criteria given in Section structure were applied, and the records that included the following ICD-10 codes were included in this section:

• the UCoD was Assault (X85–Y09) or Legal intervention and operations of war (Y35–Y36)
• the MCoDs included any of these codes and a code for Injury (S00–T75 or T79).

Few deaths were included by the second criterion (about 4 per year, on average). Deaths due to legal intervention were also included.

Very few deaths were attributed to operations of war, reflecting the practice that deaths overseas of members of Australian armed forces are not normally registered in Australia (AIHW: Harrison & Henley 2015). The concepts underlying the abbreviations used in this section are defined in the Glossary.

Relevant terms and information about the data used in this section are summarised in boxes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 11.1.

How many deaths in 2016–17 were due to homicide?

Homicides accounted for 231 injury deaths, just under 2% of all injury deaths in this period (Table 11.1). There were 2.3 times as many homicide deaths of males as of females in this period.

Table 11.1: Key indicators for homicide deaths, by sex, 2016–17

Indicator	Males	Females	Persons
Number	161	70	231
Percentage of all injury deaths	2.0	1.3	1.8
Crude rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	1.3	0.6	0.9
Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	1.4	0.6	1.0

Source: AIHW NMD.

Deaths of people aged 25–44 accounted for 46% of homicides (Table 11.2). By contrast, 21% of all injury deaths occurred in this age range. The age pattern of these deaths (peaking in the age groups 25–44 and 45–64) was broadly similar for males and females.

Table 11.2: Homicide deaths, by age and sex, 2016–17

Age group	Males		Females		Persons
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
0–4	5	3.1	5	7.1	10	4.3
5–14	6	3.7	3	4.3	9	3.9
15–24	20	12.4	5	7.1	25	10.8
25–44	76	47.2	29	41.4	105	45.5
45–64	36	22.4	16	22.9	52	22.5
65+	18	11.2	12	17.1	30	13.0
Total	161	100.0	70	100.0	231	100.0

Source: AIHW NMD.

State or territory of usual residence

The age-standardised rate of homicide deaths for residents of the Northern Territory was 2.6 times the national rate of 1.0 deaths per 100,000 population (Table 11.3).

Rates for residents of other jurisdictions varied markedly, ranging from 1.6 deaths per 100,000 population in Tasmania to 0.7 deaths per 100,000 population in Victoria.

Results should be treated with caution due to low numbers in smaller jurisdictions, particularly the Australian Capital Territory, which can lead to marked year-to-year variations in rates.

Table 11.3: Homicide deaths, by state/territory of usual residence, 2016–17

Indicator	State/territory of usual residence
	NSW	VIC	QLD	WA	SA	TAS	ACT	NT
Number	65	44	45	36	24	9	1	7
%	28.1	19.0	19.5	15.6	10.4	3.9	0.4	3.0
Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	0.8	0.7	0.9	1.4	1.4	1.6	n.p.	2.6

Source: AIHW NMD.

Remoteness of usual residence

The age-standardised rates of homicide rose with the level of remoteness. The rate for residents of Very remote areas was 5.3 times as high as the rate for residents of Major cities (Table 11.4).

But the numbers of cases in these areas were not very large, and even modest variations in small annual case numbers have large effects on rates.

Table 11.4: Homicide deaths, by remoteness of usual residence, 2016–17

Indicators	Remoteness of usual residence(b)
	Major cities	Inner regional	Outer regional	Remote	Very remote
Number(a)	141	41	24	8	9
%	63.2	18.5	10.7	3.5	4.2
Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	0.8	1.0	1.2	2.9	4.2

Notes: 

1. Excludes 8 deaths where remoteness was not reported.
2. Derived using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) classification.

Source: AIHW NMD.

Socioeconomic area

The age-standardised rate of homicide rose with socioeconomic disadvantage (Table 11.5). The rate for people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas (1.5 deaths per 100,000 population) was 2.5 times the rate for people living in the highest socioeconomic areas (0.6 per 100,000).

Table 11.5: Homicide deaths, by socioeconomic area, 2016–17

Indicator	Socioeconomic area
	1—lowest	2	3	4	5-highest
Number	72	51	44	29	27
%	31.2	22.1	19.0	12.6	11.7
Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	1.5	1.0	0.9	0.6	0.6

Note: Excludes 8 deaths where socioeconomic area was not reported.
Source: AIHW NMD.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The age-standardised homicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was more than 7 times as high as the rate for non-Indigenous Australians (Table 11.6).

Table 11.6: Key indicators for homicide deaths, by Indigenous status and sex, 2016–17

Indicator	Indigenous			Non-Indigenous
	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females	Persons
Number	21	13	34	97	41	138
Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population)	7.6	4.3	5.9	1.2	0.5	0.8
Rate ratio(a)	6.3	8.6	7.4	. .	. .	. .
Rate difference(b)	6.4	3.8	5.1	. .	. .	. .

Notes: 

1. Rate ratios are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons divided by standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.
2. Rate differences are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons minus standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.

Includes data for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory (see Box 1.2).

Source: AIHW NMD.