Data shows people in the Highlands died later than the national average age

Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) provided insights on life expectancies, causes of death, premature deaths (people under the age of 75), avoidable deaths and median ages across the country.

Data on different local government areas is also provided over a five year period, from 2017 to 2021.

Between 1967 and 2021, the life expectancy of men jumped by 13.7 years to 81.3 years of age and 11.2 years for women at to 85.4 across the country.

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Nationally, most common age at death was 87 years for men and 91 years for women in 2021.

The median age for deaths - the age where half of the deaths occurred, jumped in 2021 for men by 11.5 years between then and 1964 to 79.6 years old, and to 84.9 years old for women, which is a 10.9 year rise.

So how does this compare to the Highlands?

Half of the women who passed in the Highlands in 2021 lived for an extra year and died at 86 years old.

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This median age has jumped from 85.2 years old in 2017 and dropped by 0.2 compared to 2019 and 2020.

Once again, men in the Highlands beat the median age of death in 2021, where half of them occurred at 81 years old.

This has dropped from 83 in 2018 and 82 in 2021.

The report also showed it was rare for someone to reach their 110^th birthday nationally, but the number of people exceeding 100 years of age skyrocketed in the past six decades.

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In 2021, centenarians made up 1.4 per cent of deaths compared to 0.08 per cent in 1964.

According to the AIHW, the oldest living person in Australia was Christina Cock, who died at 114 in 2002.

The top leading causes for death for men and women were also the same in the Highlands, compared to the rest of Australia.

For men in 2021, the top cause of death was coronary heart disease, and was dementia including Alzheimer's disease for women.

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