Mortality
Undercounting of deaths due to neurological conditions and dementia
For mortality data, apart from condition codes for functional neurological disorder, this report uses the International Statistical Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) condition codes listed under the category of “Diseases of the nervous system”. This means that some neurological conditions are not included in the mortality statistics reported here.
For example, only 3 types of dementia are categorised in the ICD-10 under “Diseases of the nervous system”, with other types of dementia categorised elsewhere. Therefore, the numbers reported here do not account for the deaths of people with all the different types of dementia. For deaths due to all of the variants of dementia as a combined category, see AIHW’s Dementia in Australia report.
See the Data sources section of this report for more details on the condition codes used for reporting from the National Mortality Database.
Based on the National Mortality Database (NMD), in 2023:
- neurological conditions were recorded as the underlying cause for 11,853 deaths (44 per 100,000 population, or 32 per 100,000 population age-standardised), representing 6.5% of all deaths in Australia, and an associated cause for 11,843 deaths (44 per 100,000 population, or 34 per 100,000 population age-standardised)
- Parkinson’s disease was the underlying cause of 21% of the deaths for which neurological conditions were the underlying cause, and motor neurone disease was the underlying cause of 6.6%
- females had a slightly higher rate of deaths (46 per 100,000 female population) due to neurological conditions (underlying cause) than males (43 per 100,000 male population) – the sex difference was reversed after age-standardisation, with 30 deaths per 100,000 females and 36 deaths per 100,000 males
- the median age of people at point of death when neurological conditions were the underlying cause was 83 years (85 years for females and 81 years for males)
- older age-groups accounted for most of the deaths due to neurological conditions, with 78% of neurological condition deaths for people in the 75+ years age-groups (Figure 6).
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Males had a higher age-standardised rate of deaths (per 100,000 population) compared with females.
Socioeconomic and remoteness areas
In 2023:
- there was little difference in the rate of deaths due to neurological conditions between people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas and people living in the highest socioeconomic areas (both around 44 per 100,000 population) – age-standardised rates were also similar (31.4 and 32.6 per 100,000 population, respectively)
- people living in Remote and very remote areas had the lowest age-standardised rate of deaths due to neurological conditions (23 per 100,000 population), compared with people living in Outer regional areas (28 per 100,000 population), Inner regional areas (33 per 100,000 population) and Major cities (33 per 100,000 population).
Data tables on socioeconomic and remoteness figures are available for download under the Data section of this report.
Trends over time
From 2013 to 2023:
- there was an increase in the number of deaths due to neurological conditions, from 7,560 to 11,853 deaths, as well as an increase in the percentage of all deaths that were due to neurological conditions
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Neurological condition deaths, as a percentage of all deaths, have increased from 2013 to 2023.
- the rate of deaths (per 100,000 population) due to neurological conditions increased from 33 to 44 and the age-standardised rate increased from 28 to 32 (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Neurological condition deaths from 2013 to 2023, by age-group and sex
This visualisation shows mortality for neurological conditions. The visualisation can be changed to display rates (per 100,000 population) or total number of deaths for time trends from 2013 to 2023 or for age-groups in a specific year, disaggregated by sex.
