People in the ACT tend to live longer than our fellow Australians – 85.9 years for females and 82.1 years for males – as life expectancy across the nation continues to rise.

Nationally, a baby boy expected to live to 81.2 years and a girl to 85.3 years, according to the latest figures released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

“Babies born today have the highest estimated life expectancy ever recorded in Australia”, ABS Demography Director Beidar Cho said.

Male life expectancy at birth reached 81.2 years in 2018-2020, increasing from 80.9 in 2017-2019. Female life expectancy also increased to 85.3 years from 85.0 in the previous year. ­

Life expectancy for males has improved at a faster rate than that for females. Around 30 years ago (1990), life expectancy at birth in Australia was 73.9 years for males and 80.1 years for females, a gap of 6.2 years. The gap has now narrowed to 4.1 years in 2018-2020.

“Australians have a higher life expectancy than comparable countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA and lower life expectancy than Japan, Singapore and Switzerland” Ms Cho said.

Today, an Australian male aged 50 years can expect to live another 33.2 years, and a female another 36.6 years. This is longer than life expectancies at birth, as 50-year-olds have successfully made it through the first several decades of life.

While the ACT recorded the highest life expectancy, the Northern Territory recorded the lowest for both males (76.2 years) and females (81.0 years). Despite this, male and female life expectancies in the NT showed the largest gains of all the states and territories over the last 30 years (9.9 years and 8.7 years).

Further details are in Life Tables, 2018-2020. Australia, state, territory and sub-state information is also available for free download from the ABS website.

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