For the first time Australian Life expectancy has declined by 0.1 years due to the Covid pandemic.
Even with a relatively large increase in the number of deaths, the effect on life expectancy was small.
This is because more than half of the people who died in 2022 were aged 80 years and over. Despite the drop, Australia is still ranked third in the world for longevity, behind only Monaco and Japan. Both of these countries also recorded a dip in life expectancy over the past year due to pandemic deaths.