Australian Health Performance Framework: PI 3.4.4–Mortality due to suicide, 2020

Collection and usage attributes

The registration of deaths in Australia is the responsibility of state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages. As part of the registration process, information about the cause of death is supplied by the medical practitioner certifying the death or by a coroner. The information is provided to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) by individual Registrars for coding and compilation into aggregate statistics. In addition, the ABS supplements this data with information from the National Coronial Information System (NCIS).

Deaths that are referred to a coroner can take time to be fully investigated. To account for this, the ABS undertakes a revisions process for those deaths where coronial investigations remained open at the time an initial cause of death was assigned. Data are deemed preliminary when first published, revised when published the following year and final when published after a second year.

(Numerator ÷ Denominator) × 100,000

Rates are directly age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population. Presented per 100,000 population.

Number of deaths

Total Australian population

2008 to 2018—Nationally, by sex.

2017, 2018—State and territory, by sex.

2017, 2018—Primary Health Network (PHN), by sex.

2014–2018—Nationally by Indigenous status and sex.

Some disaggregations may result in numbers too small for publication.

Disaggregation by Indigenous status will be based on data only from jurisdictions for which the quality of Indigenous identification is considered acceptable—New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

Due to the small number of Indigenous deaths reported each year, 5-year combined data will be reported for Indigenous status disaggregations.

Most recent data available for 2020 Australian Health Performance Framework reporting:

• 2018
• Aggregated data 2014–2018 (Indigenous status)

Deaths registered in 2015 and earlier are based on the final version of cause of death data; deaths registered in 2016 are based on the revised version; and deaths registered in 2017 are based on the preliminary version. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

A number of updates to the ICD-10 were applied to the 2013 causes of death data. Details of the impact of these changes on the mortality data are described in ABS Implementation of the Iris Software: Understanding Coding and Process Improvements.

Prior to 2013, mortality data were coded using ICD-10 2006 version. 2013 data were coded using ICD-10 2013 version; 2014–2017 data were coded using ICD-10 2015 version; 2018 data were coded using ICD-10 2016 version.

Single year data will be reported for time series analysis.

Denominators used in the calculation of rates for the Indigenous population are ABS estimates (Series B, 2016 Census-based). Non-Indigenous estimates are only available for Census years; in the intervening years the population is calculated by subtracting the estimated Indigenous population from the total population Estimated Resident Population (ERP).

Indigenous and non-Indigenous analysis excludes records where Indigenous status was 'not stated'.

Due to the small number of Indigenous deaths reported each year, 5-year combined data will be reported for the current reporting period. 

Data by remoteness and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) may be available, pending assessment of data quality.

Representational attributes

N[NNN].N

Indicator conceptual framework

Data source attributes

Accountability attributes

Australian Health Performance Framework

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Source and reference attributes

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Relational attributes