CANBERRA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Ischaemic heart disease continued to be Australia's leading cause of deaths in 2022, data from the national statistics agency showed.
It accounted for 9.8 percent of all deaths in 2022, followed by dementia, COVID-19, cerebrovascular diseases and lung cancer, according to data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday.
The top five causes accounted for approximately one third of all deaths, and COVID-19 was the third most common cause of deaths compared to 38th and 33rd in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Overall, there were 190,939 recorded deaths in Australia in 2022, up from 171,469 in 2021.
According to the ABS, it marked the first time that an infectious disease ranked in the top five causes of deaths since 1970 and the first time since 2006 that the top five causes of deaths have changed.
Suicide was the leading cause of premature deaths, with 3,249 Australians taking their own lives in 2022 at a median age of 45.6 years compared to the median age at death from all causes of 82.2 years. ■