COVID-19 has become the first infectious disease to rank in the top five causes of death since 1970.
It was ranked the third leading cause of death in 2022, behind heart disease and dementia.
The figures were released in September’s Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) ‘Causes of Death’ annual figures.
“This marks the first time an infectious disease has appeared in the top five leading causes since 1970, when influenza and pneumonia was ranked fifth,” said Lauren Moran, ABS Head of Mortality Statistics.
“Broken down by sex, we saw that COVID-19 was the third ranked cause of death for males (5,484) and the fourth ranked cause of death for females (4,375). Those who died from COVID-19 had a high median age at death of 85.8 years,” she said.
Dementia remains the leading cause of death among women and the second leading cause of death for men.
Stroke and lung cancer rounded out the top five leading causes of death.
Overall, there were 190,939 deaths recorded in 2022, 20,000 more than the previous year.
