Deaths in Australia

Rates of death and leading causes of death differ between the areas where people live (Figure 7.2, Table S7.4). People living in rural and remote areas continue to face challenges due to their geographic location (AIHW, 2025), and as a result:

• people living in Very remote Australia have a higher rate of death than people living in Major cities (774 deaths per 100,000 in Very remote Australia, 497 Major cities).
• The age-standardised death rate for males living in Very remote areas was 1.4 times the rate in Major cities, and for females it was 1.7 times.
• the leading causes of death are largely preventable.

Leading causes of death

Figure 7.2: Leading underlying causes of death in Australia, by remoteness area and sex, 2022–2024

Leading causes of death differ across Remoteness Areas for males and females.

For males, in 2022–2024:

• coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death across all areas, responsible for 1 in 9 deaths in Major cities and 1 in 7 deaths in Very remote areas.
• the death rate for COPD and diabetes is more than twice as high for those living in Very remote areas than for those living in Major cities (Table S7.4)

For females, in 2022–2024:

• dementia was responsible for 1 in 8 deaths of females in Major cities and 1 in 20 deaths in Very remote areas.
• diabetes was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths of females in Very remote areas and 1 in 33 deaths in Major cities.

Potentially avoidable causes of death

In the 2022–2024 period, the potentially avoidable death rate increased with increasing remoteness (Table S7.5). The age-standardised death rate for potentially avoidable causes of death was almost 3 times as high for those living in Very remote areas compared with those living in Major cities (252 per 100,000 in Very remote areas, 88 per 100,000 in Major cities)

The proportion of deaths due to potentially avoidable causes also increased with increasing remoteness area, with these causes responsible for:

• 49 and 45% of male and female deaths respectively in Major cities.
• 61 and 62% of male and female deaths respectively in Very remote areas.

The conditions contributing most to the differences in avoidable mortality (gap) between those living in Very remote areas and Major cities were:

• coronary heart disease (29% of the gap) and diabetes (13%) for males
• diabetes (23% of the gap) and coronary heart disease (22%) for females.

See Rural & remote health.