The age Australians can expect to live to has fallen for a second year due to COVID-19 pandemic-related deaths.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Friday revealed the average boy born in 2024 will live up to 81.1 years while his female counterpart has a 85.1-year life expectancy.
This represented a decrease of 0.1 years for males and 0.2 years for females from the previous period, the bureau's head of demography Beidar Cho said.
"The years 2021-2023 saw the highest number of COVID-19 deaths with 15,982 in Australia, which was up by 4100 from 2020-2022," Ms Cho said.
"As a result, life expectancy has fallen by 0.1 years for men and 0.2 years for women over this period."
Despite the decline, Australians still have a higher life expectancy than people in Britain and comparable countries such as New Zealand, the United States and Canada.
An average 60-year-old Australian woman can expect to live another 27.1 years, and a man another 24.2 years.
This is longer than life expectancy at birth, as 60-year-olds have already survived the first several decades of life, Ms Cho said.
The Australian Capital Territory had the highest male life expectancy, at 81.7 years, followed by Western Australia at 81.6 and Victoria at 81.5.
Women in the ACT were also expected to live the longest, at 85.7 years, followed by Victoria at 85.4 years and NSW at 85.2 years.
The Northern Territory had the lowest life expectancy for men (76.4 years) and women (80.4 years).
The NT experienced the largest rise in male and female life expectancies from 2013-2023 - 1.5 years and 1.2 years respectively.
