Demographic and service profile of ADF members

Key points:

  • The study cohort totalled 216,640 living and deceased ADF members who have served at least one day in the ADF between 2001 and 2018. Of this cohort, 55,438 were serving, more than half (118,584, 55%) were ex-serving, and 42,618 were reserve members of the ADF.
  • Of the study cohort, 54,865 serving members were alive as of 31 December 2018, over half (117,023) ex‑serving members were not known to be dead (presumed alive), and 41,971 reserve members were alive.
  • Between 2001 and 2018, 465 ADF members (serving, reserve and ex-serving) died by suicide: 109 serving males, 78 reserve males, 242 ex-serving males and 36 females.
  • For serving and reserve males, the age adjusted rate of dying by suicide was half that of Australian males, while the rate for ex-serving males was 22% higher.
  • The age-adjusted rate of suicide for ex-serving females was 127% (or 2.27 times) higher when compared with Australian females.

In this chapter, the analysis explores service-related and demographic characteristics of ADF members who have served at least one day between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2018. Datasets used for the analysis of ADF service and suicide include the Defence Personnel Management Key Solution (PMKeyS) for the period 2001 to 2018, the National Death Index (NDI), the Defence Suicide Database (DSD), and the Defence Work Health and Safety dataset.

The study cohort

The study cohort totalled 216,640 living or deceased ADF members who have served at least one day in the ADF between 2001 and 2018. Of this cohort:

  • 55,438 were serving (45,252 males and 10,186 females)
  • 42,618 were reserve (35,863 males and 6,755 females)
  • 118,584, were ex-serving (100,507 males and 18,077 females).

ADF members who died by suicide

Work Health Safety and bullying

The Work Health Safety (WHS) dataset captures a range of incidents experienced by ADF members during service. These include incidents involving bullying, or which describe bullying or associated behaviors.

Between 2001 and 2018, 96,731 ADF members (45%) had a WHS incident recorded. Among those who had a WHS incident, 286 ADF members (217 males, 69 females) had an incident relating to workplace bullying or harassment (Table 7). While no ADF members who died by suicide reported a WHS incident relating to bullying or workplace harassment, there are other reporting mechanisms available to victims of bullying and harassment, such as the Defence Ombudsman (Commonwealth Ombudsman, 2021) and Defence Abuse Reporting Taskforce (DART, 2016).

Table 7: Number of ADF members(a) who had a WHS incident relating to bullying, harassment or occupational violence, by sex, 2001 to 2018

WHS incidents

Males

Females

Bullying

199

58

Work related harassment and/or workplace bullying

112

52

Exposure to workplace or occupational violence

273

n.p.

Other harassment

27

n.p.

Total

491

74

n.p. = not published due to small numbers

Note: (a) The cohort is all serving, reserve and ex-serving ADF members (all ages, males & females) who served at least one day from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2018, and had a WHS claim between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2018.

Source: AIHW analysis of PMKeyS-NDI-Defence WHS, 2001-2018