Australians born today in the ACT can expect to enjoy a longer life than anywhere else in the country, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The data released on Tuesday shows life expectancy remains unchanged in the 2022-2024 period compared to the previous three-year period.
For men, it's 81.1 years and 85.1 years for females.
The effect of COVID-19 on life expectancy
The ABS calculates life expectancy on the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex could be expected to live, assuming current age-sex specific death rates are experienced throughout their lifetime.
The data shows life expectancy estimates based on deaths captured during 2022-24 in the height of COVID-19 pandemic.
It includes data from 2022, when higher levels of excess mortality were recorded. The number of deaths increased by almost 20,000 from 2021, and COVID-19 caused over 10,000 deaths.
Demographer Dr Sergey Timonin from the Australian National University attributed the lack of change in life expectancy to COVID-19. He said Australia was currently at the level that it was in 2021, right before a major drop in life expectancy due to the effects of COVID-19 in 2022.
"So life expectancy increased in those two years, 2020, and 2021, but on the contrary, it dropped dramatically in 2022," he said.
"When we talk about all these three-year estimates, we should keep in mind that there were quite a lot of changes during this period, including the biggest drop that Australia saw in the 2022.
"When they say that life expectancy hasn't changed at all between these three year periods, meaning, mathematically, that life expectancy in 2024 which we actually mostly interested in, is the same as it was in 2021."
Lockdowns restricted the spread of other respiratory viruses that many seniors die from, he said.
"Before 2022, during the lockdown period in Australia, life expectancy increased quite a lot, and it was definitely at their peak. What we see now is kind of recovery from this 2022 period," Timonin told SBS News.
"I think if COVID hadn't happened the life expectancy at the moment should have been a little bit higher than it is now, just a little bit, but not dramatically. So it is more or less, let's say, on track."
Where can Australians expect to live the longest?
Residents of the Australian Capital Territory enjoy the nation's highest life expectancy, for both males at 82.0 years and females at 85.8 years.
Life expectancy was lowest in the Northern Territory for both men (77.0 years) and women (80.7 years).
However, the NT had the largest increase compared to the other states and territory on life expectancy, for both males (0.6 years) and females (0.3 years) in the 2022-24 period.
Credit: SBS News
It was highest for both males and females in Sydney, particularly North Sydney and Hornsby.
Life expectancy also increased the most for Tasmanian men in the state's south-east, and women in Sydney's west in Parramatta, Melbourne's inner-south and Western Australia's southern outback.
How does Australia compare?
Three decades ago, life expectancy at birth was 75 years for males and 80.9 years for females in Australia. Nationally, life expectancy has increased by almost a year in the past decade, broadly,
Australia has the 10th highest life expectancy — behind Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Israel, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway.
Credit: SBS News
"And we know that 2022 was bad in Australia. So I don't think that this comparison is fair enough to talk about," he said.
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