Last year, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released Australia’s health 2024 – a biennial snapshot of how Australians are doing physically, mentally and socially.

 

Below are some key insights that might surprise you.

 

Leading causes of death (2022):

1.        Coronary heart disease

2.        Dementia

3.        COVID-19

4.        Cerebrovascular disease

5.        Lung cancer.

 

Progress in some health risk factors, while some risk factors have grown:

·        Overweight and obesity: up from 55% (1995) to 66% (2022).

·        Risky alcohol consumption: down from 39% (2004) to 31% (2022-23).*

·        Daily tobacco smoking: down from 12.2% (2016) to 8.3% (2022-23).

·        Daily e-cigarette smoking: up from 0.5% (2016) to 3.5% (2022-23).

 

Most common long-term health conditions (2022):

1.        Anxiety (4.8 million people, 18.9%)

2.        Back problems (4.0 million people, 15.7%)

3.        Depression (3.2 million people, 12.4%)

4.        Asthma (2.8 million people, 10.8%)

5.        Deafness or hearing loss (2.4 million people, 9.6%).

Over ⅓ of disease burden was potentially preventable (2018) – that is, it could have been prevented had Australians reduced or avoided exposure to certain risk factors.†

 

Risk factors that caused the most disease burden (2018):

1.        Tobacco use (8.6% of total burden)

2.        Overweight and obesity (8.4%)

3.        Dietary risks (5.4%)

4.        High blood pressure (5.1%)

5.        Alcohol use (4.5%).

 

* Consuming more than 10 standard drinks per week or more than 4 in a single day is likely to increase the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury.

 

† Burden of disease is a way of measuring the impact of diseases and injuries on a population. It combines the years of healthy life lost due to living with ill health (non-fatal burden) with the years of life lost due to dying prematurely (fatal burden).

 

If you’re wondering what you can do, focus on small, sustainable changes. Whether it’s moving more, sleeping better, reducing alcohol intake or managing stress, even small steps can make a big difference over time.

 

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References

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2024) Australia’s health 2024: in brief, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 04 August 2025.
2. Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Health_Illustrated_Text.png