Canberra, November 14 (IANS). Shocking figures were released in Australia on Friday. According to these official figures, dementia became the leading cause of death in Australia in 2024 and for the first time it also proved to be the country’s biggest killer disease.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed that dementia, including Alzheimer’s, overtook ischemic heart disease (a condition in which the heart does not get enough blood and oxygen) as the leading cause of death in the country last year.
The ABS said 17,549 of the 187,268 deaths recorded in Australia in 2024 were due to dementia.
The number of deaths from dementia has increased by more than 160 percent from 6,550 in 2006, while the number of deaths from heart disease has decreased by 29.6 percent over the same period. It increased to 16,275 in 2024 whereas in 2006 it was 23,132.
The ABS has blamed Australia’s aging population as a major cause of death due to rising cases of dementia. The bureau said 68.2 percent of total deaths in 2024 would be among people over the age of 75, up from 63.3 percent in 2004.
“People are now more likely to live to an age where they are at greater risk of developing dementia. This is especially true for women, who have longer life expectancies. Today’s figures show that 62.4 per cent of those who died from dementia were women,” Xinhua quoted Lauren Moran, head of mortality statistics at the ABS, as saying.
Dementia has been the leading cause of death for women in Australia since 2016. However, coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death among men, causing 10,153 deaths in 2024.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said in a report released in September that the number of Australians suffering from dementia could increase from 425,000 in 2024 to more than one million by 2065.
Chronic lower respiratory disease will be the third most common cause of death in 2024, followed by cerebrovascular disease and lung cancer.
The ABS said drug and alcohol-related deaths increased in 2024 with 3,307 people committing suicide.
–IANS
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