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Report of the New South Wales Chief Health Officer |
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Life expectancy at birth |
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Report of the New South Wales Chief Health Officer |
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Life expectancy at birth |
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| 1965 | 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1990 | 1995 | 1998 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Males | 67.1 | 66.9 | 69.2 | 70.9 | 72.1 | 73.9 | 75.7 | 76.5 |
| Females | 73.7 | 73.9 | 76.4 | 78.3 | 78.7 | 80.1 | 81.1 | 81.9 | |
| AUSTRALIA | Males | 67.8 | 67.4 | 69.5 | 71.2 | 72.5 | 74.3 | 75.8 | 76.5 |
| Females | 74.5 | 74.3 | 76.6 | 78.4 | 78.9 | 80.3 | 81.3 | 81.9 |
| Note: | Abridged current life tables with Greville's correction for neonatal mortality used to calculate life expectancy. This may result in slight differences from life expectancy figures published by ABS. |
| Source: | ABS mortality data and population estimates (HOIST). Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, NSW Health Department. |
Life expectancy at birth is an estimate of the average length of time (in years) a person can expect to live, assuming that the currently prevailing rates of death for each age group will remain the same for the lifetime of that person.
In fact, death rates will almost certainly change over the lifetime of a person born now, because of changes in social and economic conditions, lifestyle, nutritional and environmental factors, sanitation, immunisation, the quality of health care, and possibly the emergence of new diseases. However, because no-one knows what the death rates for each age group and sex will be in the future, the usual practice is to use the current rates of death to calculate life expectancy.
A more precise measure is the expected age at death once a person has reached the age of 65 years.
Details of the methods used to calculate life expectancy and related measures can be found in the Methods section.
In NSW, between 1965 and 1998, life expectancy at birth steadily increased, by 9.4 years for males (from 67.1 to 76.5 years) and by 8.1 years for females (from 73.7 to 81.9 years). These increases were similar to those for Australia overall.
Though females can still expect to live longer than males, the difference between the sexes is decreasing. In NSW the difference in life expectancy between males and females dropped from 6.6 years in 1964 to 5.4 years in 1998.
Life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is significantly lower than for the non-indigenous population. See Chapter 3.2 for more information regarding the health status of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of NSW.
| For more information: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare web site at http://www.aihw.gov.au |
| Australian Bureau of Statistics web site at http://www.abs.gov.au | |
| Print version: | Although this page can be printed directly from your Web browser, a higher quality version of this entire page (graph, table and text) is available as an Acrobat PDF file which can be printed or viewed on screen using free software. |
| Copyright notice: | This work is copyright NSW Health Department, 2000. It may be reproduced in whole or in part, subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source. Commercial usage or sale is prohibited. |
| Downloadable files: | The data contained in the table on this page are available for download as a CSV file which can be imported into many software packages, and the graph is available for download as an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file which can be imported into most word processing, presentation and graphics software packages. |
| Suggested citation: | Public Health Division, The Health of the people of New South Wales - Report of the Chief Health Officer. NSW Health Department, Sydney, 2000. Available at: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/lif_lexbth.htm. Accessed (insert date of access). |
| Produced by: | Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Public Health Division, NSW Health Department. |
| Last updated on: | 31 July 2000 |
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