The single leading cause of death in Australia is heart disease, accounting for 12.04 per cent of all registered deaths, according to 2016 data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday.
Heart disease is also the top cause of death among Australian men, with 10,870 deaths (or 13.28 of all male deaths) resulting from the disease.
However, the number and rate of death from heart disease continues to decline. In 2007, 22,956 people in Australia died from heart disease or 16.65 per cent of the total number of deaths, which had decreased to 19,077 (12.04 per cent of all deaths) in 2016.
Disease gene 'edited' in human embryos in scientific first
While cancer accounted for almost 30 per cent of Australian deaths in 2016, the ABS breaks down the causes of death by cancer type, for example, prostate cancer, the 11th leading cause of death that year.
The ABS registered 3,334 deaths from prostate cancer, up from 2,939 in 2007.
Bureau data shows that breast cancer is the 12th leading cause of death in Australia, with 3,004 deaths recorded in 2016, up from 2,709 in 2007.
Pancreatic cancer, the 13th leading cause of death, rose from 2,252 deaths in 2007 to 2,911 in 2016.
The number of people dying from cerebrovascular diseases has declined from 11,505 or 8.3 per cent of the total number of deaths in 2007 to 10,451 or 6.6 per cent in 2016.
While death rates from heart disease and stroke have decreased, other diseases such as dementia have continued to increase.
Since 2007, the number of Australians dying from dementia has jumped from 7,318 (5.3 percent) of all deaths to 13,126 (8.3 per cent), with the condition now the leading cause of death of Australian women at 8,447 or 11 per cent of all female deaths.
Suicide is the leading cause of death among people 15-44 years of age and remains the leading cause of premature mortality in Australia, occurring at a rate of 11.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The infant mortality rate is at a record low at 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
There were 158,504 deaths in Australia in 2016 and a corresponding standardised death rate of 5.4 per 1,000 people.
There were more male deaths (81,867) registered in 2016 than female deaths (76,637), which translates to a ratio of 106.8 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.
New mission to stop breast cancer deaths
Understanding why some women are more at risk of dying from breast cancer than others is the focus of a major research project launched by the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
While breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates at 90 per cent, there are hundreds of women who still die within five years of being diagnosed with the disease.
Eight women in Australia die of breast cancer every day, statistics show.
Researchers at the Centre for Population Health Research at the University of South Australia will pull together all the data from hospitals, radiotherapy centres and tissue banks to help answer the question: Why are 10 per cent of women still not surviving beyond five years?
"What's different about them and what can we do about it?" said Professor Ian Olver, a chief investigator on the project.
"If we can link all the data together, we can find out more about what puts people at greater risk of not doing well."
The research, announced on Wednesday at the launch of the Pink Ribbon Breakfast fundraising campaign, will start in SA and then broaden nationally.
New mission to stop breast cancer deaths
Understanding why some women are more at risk of dying from breast cancer than others is the focus of a major research project launched by the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
While breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates at 90 per cent, there are hundreds of women who still die within five years of being diagnosed with the disease.
Eight women in Australia die of breast cancer every day, statistics show.
Researchers at the Centre for Population Health Research at the University of South Australia will pull together all the data from hospitals, radiotherapy centres and tissue banks to help answer the question: Why are 10 per cent of women still not surviving beyond five years?
"What's different about them and what can we do about it?" said Professor Ian Olver, a chief investigator on the project.
"If we can link all the data together, we can find out more about what puts people at greater risk of not doing well."
The research, announced on Wednesday at the launch of the Pink Ribbon Breakfast fundraising campaign, will start in SA and then broaden nationally.
