Life expectancy at birth in Victoria 2001-2005 - Victorian Government Health Information, Australia

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Life expectancy at birth: Victoria 2001-2005

Page content: Introduction | Summary of findings | Maps and charts | Download documents

Introduction

Life expectancy at birth has been computed for the state of Victoria, metropolitan and rural Victorian local government areas (LGAs), DHS regions, Primary Care Partnership (PCP) areas, and LGAs aggregated into five strata on the basis of their ‘Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage’ (IRSED) score, using population estimates and registered deaths in 2005.

Five years (2001-2005) of mortality and population data have been aggregated by LGA, to estimate life expectancy at birth for LGAs within Victoria.

Details of life expectancies across the state of Victoria are presented in the maps, charts and tables provided below.

Summary of findings

The main points of interest are summarised below:

A male born in Victoria in 2005 can expect to live 79.8 years while a female can expect to live 84.3 years.

Life expectancy at birth has increased significantly, by 2 to 4 years, for both males and females, regardless of socioeconomic status (grouped into five strata based on the IRSED score from most to least disadvantaged) between 1996 and 2005.

In rural Victoria in 2005 life expectancy at birth, for both males and females (78.5 and 83.4 years respectively), was significantly lower than the state estimate, while in metropolitan Victoria life expectancy at birth for both males and females (80.3 and 84.7 years respectively), was significantly higher than the state estimate.

The difference in life expectancy at birth in 2005 between rural and metropolitan Victoria was 1.7 years in males (2.0 years in 2004) and 1.3 years in females (1.3 years in 2004).

Life expectancy at birth was highest in the Eastern metropolitan region for both males (81.0 years) and females (85.1 years) and was significantly (P<0.05) higher than the state estimate, as was the life expectancy for females in the North & West region (84.9 years). Life expectancy at birth for males in Barwon SW (78.2 years), Grampians (78.6 years) and Hume (78.2 years) regions and for females in Barwon SW (83.0 years) and Hume (83.1 years) regions were significantly below (P<0.05) the state estimate.

Males in the Central East PCP area had the highest life expectancy at birth of 82.0 years, while females in the Moonee Valley-Melbourne PCP area had the highest life expectancy at birth of 87.4 years, in 2005.

Six PCP areas had a life expectancy at birth for males below the state estimate of 79.8 years, while only two PCP areas had a life expectancy at birth for females below the state estimate of 84.3 years.

The local government area (LGA) of Nillumbik had the highest male life expectancy of 81.9 years; while Melbourne had the highest female life expectancy of 86.7 years, for the period 2001-2005, compared to 78.9 years for all males and 83.8 years for all females in Victoria for the same five-year period.

The difference between the highest and lowest male life expectancy among LGAs is 7.0 years (Nillumbik 81.9 and Loddon 74.8 years). The difference between the highest and lowest female life expectancy in LGAs is 5.5 years (Melbourne 86.7 and Glenelg 81.3 years), for the 2001-2005 period.

The difference between highest and lowest male life expectancy in LGAs has increased over the periods: 1997-2001 (5.8 years), 1999-2003 (6.2 years), 2000-2004 (7.0 years), but the gap is stable in the current, 2001-2005, period (7.0 years). This is also true for females during the first three periods where the difference has increased (4.7, 4.9 and 5.6 years respectively), however, the difference has fallen slightly in the current, 2001-2005, period (5.5 years).
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