Most of our risk factors for chronic disease are avoidable, if we do something about it, experts say.
Compared to the OECD average, Australians live longer, spend more years with disability but lose fewer years of life, spend more on healthcare, smoke less but vape more per day, drink more per year, and more of us live with obesity.
That’s the story of the latest data from the AIHW’s Australia’s Health 2026 report, released today and put out every two years since 1998.
Key findings
- Life expectancy at birth was 81.1 years for males and 85.1 years for females in 2022–2024.
- Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia, accounting for almost 1 in 10 deaths. Over the past decade, the number of deaths caused by dementia has risen by 39%, while the number of deaths caused by coronary heart disease, the previous leading cause of death, has decreased by 18%.
- In rural Australia coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death, however.
- Around 1 in 5 (22%) Australians aged 16–85 experienced a mental health condition (such as anxiety or depression) in the last 12 months in 2020-2022.
- Mental disorders among young people aged 16–24 rose from 26% to 39% between 2007 and 2020–2022.
- Cancer diagnoses are on the rise in Australians in their 30s and 40s, but rates are still low, survival rates are improving and cancer death rates for these age groups have generally been decreasing.
- The 5-year relative cancer survival rate increased from 50% to 72% between 1987–1991 and 2017-2021.
- Around 1 in 5 young people aged 18–24 reported using vapes in 2022-2023.
- Three in five Australians live with at least one chronic condition.
Birth, death and in between
Life expectancy had been increasing steadily – going from 50.8 years for females in 1881-1890 and 47.2 years for males, to 85.1 years and 81.1 years in 2022-2024.
At 83 years overall, that’s above the OECD average of 81.1 years. For First Nations people, life expectancy at birth was 71.9 years for males and 75.6 years for females in 2022-2022.
Death rates vary. In 2022-24, there were 774 deaths per 100,000 people in very remote areas compared with 497 in major cities, and 631 deaths per 100,000 people in those living in the poorest areas compared with 418 in the most well-off areas.
First Nations people had a mortality rate 1.9 times as high as the rate among non-Indigenous Australians in 2022–2024, and 58% of deaths in First Nations people under 75 in 2022-24 were from potentially avoidable causes like coronary heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and suicide.
What are we dying of?
Dementia is the leading cause of death, rising by 39% from 2015-2024 and accounting for nearly one in 10 deaths. That’s because many of us are living to the age where dementia is more common.
Australians lose fewer years of life than our OECD compatriots (77 per 1000 people, compared to the 120 YLL OECD average) and spend more years living with disability (125 YLD per 1000 people compared to the OECD average of 120).
More of us are living with chronic conditions, three in five of us with at least one and two in five with two or more chronic conditions. For Indigenous Australians, 70% live with one or more chronic conditions.
“More Australians are living with chronic conditions and mental health conditions, and the health system is still too often built around late intervention,” said Dr Sayan Mitra from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.
“The key point is that many chronic diseases begin years before a clinical diagnosis. Changes in blood pressure, glucose, body weight, physical activity, diet, sleep, and vascular health often accumulate long before people enter the health system, which are not abstract risk factors, but measurable signals of future disease burden.
“Digital health has an important role, but only if we stop treating those signals as just a way to collect more data or as a reason to push more apps into people’s lives.
“It should help us use information earlier, fairly and practically, so we can improve healthspan and reduce avoidable disease burden.
“Australia’s next major health gain will depend on shifting digital health from passive data collection to active prevention infrastructure, using individual-level signals at population scale to identify risk earlier and act before chronic disease becomes established,” Dr Mitra said.
Years in ill-health
Since 2023, the number of years spent in ill health has gone up by 1.2 years for males and 1.5 years for females between 2003 and 2024.
The top five disease groups in terms of disease burden (years lived in ill health and years lost) were cancer (16%), mental health and substance use conditions (15%), musculoskeletal (13%), cardiovascular diseases (12%), and neurological conditions (8.4%).
The leading cause of disease burden in First Nations people in 2022 was mental health and substance use conditions (20%).
Disease burden also varies a lot depending on age and sex. For example, in 45 to 64-year-old women, back pain, osteoarthritis and anxiety disorders are the top three, while in men of the same age it’s heart disease, back pain, and suicide and self-inflicted injuries.
The burden of disease among First Nations people went down by 6.3% from 2011 to 2022 (from 455 to 430 disability-adjusted life years per 1000 people, age adjusted), which the report said was driven by declines in premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases, but it was still 2.1 times as high as the rate among non-Indigenous Australians in 2022, despite the gap narrowing since 2011.
Cancer
Five-year relative survival for people diagnosed with cancer today has gone from 50% in 1987–1991 to 72% in 2017–2021, with great variations (e.g., over 95% for testicular, thyroid and prostate cancer, less than 15% for pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma).
Diagnoses are increasingly occurring at younger ages, going from 121 per 100,000 for people in their 30s in 2000 to 135 in 2025, and from 280 to 313 for people in their 40s.
“The report mentioned that one in three Australians is born overseas. However, the report did not include any analysis based on migration status,” Professor of public health Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman pointed out.
“It’s important to compare the health status, disease burden and mortality between the host and migrant population to identify gaps and consider culturally appropriate strategies for prevention and management of chronic conditions in Australia.”
Screening programs play a big part in improving survival rates with earlier detection, the report says in one of its six focus areas: “Understanding chronic conditions: patterns, prevention and outcomes”.
It gives the example of the Lung Cancer Screening Program, which started in July 2025.
“Lung cancer is more common among people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas, with rates around 1.8 times as high as the highest socioeconomic areas,” said the report.
“Cancer accounts for a substantial share of end 26 Australia’s health 2026 of life care, representing the principal diagnosis for 40% of palliative care hospitalisations.
“Together, these patterns highlight how population level preventive health measures, such as screening, can improve outcomes and help reduce inequities.”
Risk factors
Around one-third of disease burden is preventable or reduceable through modifying environment and risk. The main risk factor is now overweight (including obesity), which affects 67% of adults and 27% of children and adolescents (compared with an OECD average of 59% overall).
“Overweight, including obesity, being the leading contributor to disease burden on this occasion, warrants further examination of commercial determinants of health, specifically addressing the aggressive marketing of fast foods, ultra-processed foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages to children and adolescents, in addition to other regulatory measures,” says Professor Aziz Rahman.
The leading contributor used to be smoking tobacco, which declined from 11% in 2019 to 8.3% in 2022-2023 (compared with the OECD average of 15%). Twelve percent of 50-59-year-olds still smoke. Smoking rates in First Nations people aged 15 and over went down from 37% to 29% between 2018-19 and 2022-2023.
At the same time, the AIHW report pointed out, e-cigarette smoking went up from 1.1% to 3.5% in that period and affects 9.3% of 18-24-year-olds. International comparison tables show we are more likely to vape regularly (5.7%) than the OECD average (4.8%).
“Australia remains a global exemplar in tobacco control, and the continued decline in smoking is encouraging. However, higher prevalence by socioeconomic status, Indigenous status and regionality highlights the need for appropriate programs for priority populations, alongside stronger licensing and enforcement to address illicit tobacco,” says Professor Aziz Rahman.
“The sharp rise in vaping, particularly among adolescents and those who first try vapes out of curiosity, reinforces the need for school-based prevention efforts, action against misleading industry messaging, clarifying scientific messages on the role of vaping for smoking cessation, and stronger cessation support from health professionals for both smoking and vaping.”
We also consume more alcohol on average (9.8 litres per person per year, compared with an OECD average of 8.4 litres per person per year).
Dr Nicholas Chartres, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Health at The University of Sydney, said his research showed that globally there were five commercial products that were a key factor in 31% of all deaths, every year, and alcohol was one of them, along with fossil fuels, tobacco, ultraprocessed foods, and chemicals use in commerce and pesticides.
“The only way the Australian government can protect the Australian public’s health from the harms of these products and reduce the growing burden of chronic disease is by addressing the root cause of the disease, which is by regulating these products,” said Professor Chartres.
Immunisation coverage rates fell between 2020 and 2025, from 95% to 92% in 1-year-olds, from 93% to 90% in 2-year-olds, and from 95%-93% in 5-year-olds.
In terms of healthcare workforce, there’s been a 26% increase in the number of registered healthcare professionals working in their field per 1000 people, including 52% in allied health, 21% in nursing and midwifery, and 15% in medical practitioners.
Some health spending stats
Health spending (by governments, health insurance providers, individuals and other non-government sources), adjusted for inflation, was $270.5 billion in 2023-24; 42% of that was on hospital care and 33% on primary care. This gap is widening, the report said.
Of that $270.5b, $44b ($1,634 per person) was out-of-pocket spending by individuals, which has grown by an average of 1.4% each year since 2013–14.
Total health spending per person (adjusted for inflation) went up from $8615 per person 2014–15 to $10,037 per person in 2023–24. International comparison figures put current Australian healthcare spending at $10,500 per person, higher than the OECD average of $8400.
Around $98 billion in 2023–24 was spent on chronic conditions; more than half (54%) of all disease spending. And almost two-thirds (63%; $61.9 billion) of the total health expenditure for chronic conditions in 2023–24 was spent on hospital services.
Spending on mental health increased from $466 per person in 2014-15 to $537 per person in 2023-24, driven by increased spending on state and territory specialised mental health services, according to the report.
One in 10 Australians received Medicare subsidised mental health services (or 2.8 million people) in 2024-25, with the highest rates in 18–34-year-old females. This was a 9% increase, from 94 patients per 1,000 population in 2015–16 to 102 patients per 1,000 population in 2024–25. In that period, antidepressant dispensing went up from 120 to 139 people per 1,000, and psychostimulants, ADHD medications and nootropics went up from 6 to 28 people per 1,000.
Hospital admissions have not increased much overall in that time, from 413 per 1000 people in 2015-16 to 416 in 2024-25, though the numbers have fluctuated in that period. Meanwhile, emergency department presentation rates were 316 per 1000 in 2015-16 and 328 per 1000 in 2024-25, but only 67% were seen on time in the most recent period, down from 74% a decade ago. And 50% of patients were admitted for elective surgery within 45 days, compared with 37 days 10 years ago.
Episodes of care by First Nations-specific primary healthcare organisations went up from 3.7 million in 2018-19 to around 4 million in 2024-25. And 25% of First Nations people had a Medicare-funded health check in 2024, up from 23% in 2022.
General practice
“Australia currently lacks consistent national data on primary health care, making it difficult to monitor and understand access, quality, outcomes and unmet needs,” the report says.
“To address this, the AIHW is working towards a National Primary Health Care Data Collection… which focuses on harmonising data recorded in clinical systems – such as patient characteristics, reasons for encounter and diagnoses – so information can be analysed securely and routinely for national and local reporting. Early pilots and demonstration projects have shown that this is feasible, while also highlighting the complexity of the primary health care data environment that can benefit from coordinated national support.” (Data demonstration projects are on the AIHW website.)
Meanwhile, GP-related statistics are changing with the recently introduced bulk billing incentives, with the bulkbilling rate most recently at 82% in the January-March 2026 quarter, up from 78% in 2024-25 (which was down from 85% in 2015-16), according to the report.
The number of people who reported delaying or skipping seeing a GP has not changed in a decade (27%), but those who did so due to cost has gone up from 4.1% to 7.7%.
More people over the age of 14 are going to the dentist (54% in 2024-25, 48% in 2015-16). One in four put it off or did not go, with 16% of those down to cost. Out-of-pocket costs have gone up at an average annual growth rate of 2.9%.
Patient satisfaction
According to international comparisons, Australians are relatively satisfied with the healthcare experience we’re having. In data from people with at least one chronic condition and aged 45 or older, Australia scored 94% for quality of care, compared to 87% for the average from 19 countries sampled), 93% for Care needs and preferences met (compared to 87%), 74% for “care was well co-ordinated across different settings” compared to 59%, 64% for “Trust in healthcare system” compared to 62% and 61% for “Confidence in managing their own health” compared to 59%.
Read the full report here.
