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Death numbers are climbing as Australia’s baby boomers reach their 80s
The annual number of deaths in Australia has risen to the highest level since the pandemic and is set to keep climbing as the baby boomers reach their 80s.
There were 188,421 deaths in Australia last year, 1153 more than in 2024, and just below the all-time high registered in 2022 when there was a temporary spike in deaths due to COVID-19.
Population ageing was driving the increase in the number of deaths, the Bureau of Statistics said. Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, became Australia’s leading cause of death in 2024, overtaking ischaemic heart diseases, separate bureau statistics show.
The median age at which people died last year was 82.1 years (the median age is when half are older and half are younger). That’s up from 81.9 years a decade earlier.
The Boomer exit will reshape Australia
Australia’s latest annual death numbers confirm the “silver tsunami” that’s been building on our horizon for years has finally arrived. Baby Boomers, who entered the world in an optimistic post-war birth rate explosion, are heading into their 80s and starting to exit the world. Their youngest members have reached the traditional retirement age of 65.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the nation recorded 188,421 deaths last year, the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic. As economics writer Matt Wade reports this figure is expected to keep rising and close in on the number of births, led by our population of ageing Boomers.
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The age measure where Australian women outperform men three to one
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The Bureau of Statistics revealed this week that there were 188,421 registered deaths in Australia in 2025, which was 0.6 per cent higher than the previous year.
An ageing population contributed, with the median age of death for males at 79.7 years and 84.6 for females.
But what surprised me the most about the statistics is the extent to which females are outliving males, and in far greater numbers.
Among Australians who lived to 100 or older, women far outnumbered men: 2,392 women died last year, compared with 724 men.
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