Life expectancy at birth in Victoria 2002-2006 - Victorian Government Health Information, Australia

Life expectancy at birth: Victoria 2002 - 2006

Life expectancy is the average number of years an individual of a given age is expected to live, if current mortality rates continue to apply. However, this may be an underestimate of how long on average a person born today can expect to live, because mortality rates are declining and the force of mortality at any future age will be less than it is for a person of that age now. Life expectancy estimates are derived from life tables. Life tables may be complete—based on a single year of age and including deaths at all ages, or abridged—based on aggregated age bands. Complete life tables tend to be used for national populations and abridged tables for subpopulations. We have used the abridged life table to derive all estimates for Victoria.

Estimates of life expectancy for LGAs within Victoria have also been computed from five years (2002-2006) of aggregated mortality and population data.

Details of life expectancies at birth, at sixty and sixty five years of age, across the state of Victoria, are presented in the maps, charts and tables provided below.

Life expectancy at birth

The main points of interest are summarised below:

A male born in Victoria in 2006 can expect to live 80.0 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 2006 IRSED scores* from most to least disadvantaged) between 1996 and 2006. *Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage

In 2006, life expectancy at birth in rural Victoria, for both males and females (78.6 and 83.8 years respectively), was significantly lower than the state estimate, while in metropolitan Victoria, life expectancy at birth for males but not females (80.5 and 84.5 years respectively), was significantly higher than the state estimate.

The difference in life expectancy at birth, between rural and metropolitan Victoria, was 2.0 years in males (1.7 years in 2005) and 0.7 years in females (1.3 years in 2005).

Life expectancy at birth was highest in the Eastern metropolitan region, for both males (81.7 years) and females (84.9 years), both significantly (P<0.05) higher than the state estimate. Life expectancy at birth were significantly below (P<0.05) the state estimate for males in Barwon SW (79.1 years), Gippsland (78.5 years), Grampians (77.7 years), Hume (78.9 years) and Loddon Mallee (78.3 years) regions and for females in Gippsland (83.4 years), Grampians (82.8 years) and Loddon Mallee (83.4 years) regions.

Males in the Inner East PCP area had the highest life expectancy at birth of 82.3 years, while females in the Moonee Valley-Melbourne PCP area had the highest life expectancy at birth of 86.4 years.

Ten PCP areas had a life expectancy at birth for males below the state estimate of 80.0 years, while only five 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 82.8 years; while Melbourne had the highest female life expectancy of 87.9 years, for the period 2002-2006, compared to 79.3 years for all males and 84.0 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 8.4 years (Nillumbik 82.8 and Loddon 74.4 years). The difference between the highest and lowest female life expectancy among LGAs is 6.4 years (Melbourne 87.9 and Hepburn 81.5 years), for the 2002-2006 period.

The difference between highest and lowest male life expectancy in LGAs has progressively increased over the periods: 1997-2001 (5.8 years), 1999-2003 (6.2 years), 2000-2004 (7.0 years), 2001-2005, (7.0 years), 2002-2006 (8.4 years) period. This is also true for females over the same periods (4.7, 4.9, 5.6, 5.5 and 6.4 years respectively).

Life expectancy at 60 and 65 years of age

The main points of interest are summarised below:

A male aged 60 years in Victoria in 2006 can expect to live 23.2 years (19.0 years at 65 years), while a female can expect to live 26.4 years (22.0 years at 65 years).

In rural Victoria, life expectancy at 60 years of age, for both males and females (22.5 and 25.9 years respectively), was significantly lower than the state estimate. This was also the case at 65 years of age (18.4 years for males and 21.6 years in females). However, in metropolitan Victoria, life expectancy at 60 years of age for males, but not females (23.5 and 26.7 years respectively), was significantly higher than the state estimate. This was also the case at 65 years of age (19.4 years for males and 22.3 years for females).

The difference in life expectancy at 60 years of age between rural and metropolitan Victoria was 1.1 years in males (1.0 year at 65 years of age) and 0.7 years in females (0.7 years at 65 years of age).

Life expectancy at 60 and 65 years of age was highest in the Eastern metropolitan region for males (24.3 and 19.9 years respectively), which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than the state estimate and the Southern metropolitan region for females (26.8, 22.4 years respectively), which was signicantly higher (P<0.05) than the state estimate at 65 years of age only.

Life expectancy at 60 and 65 years of age were significantly below (P<0.05) the state estimate for both males and females in the Grampians (21.9 and 25.1 years at 60 years of age respectively, and 17.7 and 20.8 years at 65 years respectively) and Loddon Mallee (22.2 and 25.7 years respectively at 60 years of age and 18.1 and 21.5 years at 65 years of age respectively).

Males and females in the Moonee-Valley–Melbourne PCP area had the highest life expectancy at 60 and 65 years of age, 24.9 and 28.1 at 60 years of age respectively and 20.6 and 23.6 years at 65 years of age respectively, all being significantly higher than the corresponding state estimate in 2006.

For males, five PCP areas had a life expectancy at 60 years of age below the state estimate of 23.2 years, while 6 PCP areas had a life expectancy at 65 years of age that were significantly below the state estimate of 19.0 years. Similarly in females, five PCP areas had a life expectancy at 60 years of age below the state estimate of 26.4 years, while six PCPs had a life expectancy at 65 years of age significantly below the state estimate of 22.0 years.

The local government area of Melbourne had the highest male and female life expectancy at 60 (25.6 and 29.8 years respectively) and 65 years of age (21.6 and 25.4 years respectively); for the period 2002-2006, compared to 18.5 years for all males and 21.8 years for all females in Victoria for the same five-year period.

The difference between the highest and lowest male life expectancy at 60 years of age among LGAs was 5.4 years (Melbourne 25.6 and Indigo 20.2 years). The difference between the highest and lowest female life expectancy in LGAs is 5.6 years (Melbourne 29.8 and Melton 24.2 years), for the 2002-2006 period. The difference between the highest and lowest male life expectancy at 65 years of age among LGAs was 5.4 years (Melbourne 21.6 and Indigo 16.2 years). The difference between the highest and lowest female life expectancy in LGAs was 5.7 years (Melbourne 25.4 and Melton 19.7 years), for the 2002-2006 period.

Male life expectancy at birth in LGAs (Victoria 2002-2006: 79.3 years)