Tassie death rate shock
DAMIEN BROWN
September 25, 2009 02:00am
TASMANIA has the highest annual death rate from drugs and alcohol in the nation, new statistics show.
The state also has the second highest annual death rate in the country.
And its suicide rate is the highest of all the states -- 40 per cent higher than the national average.
A report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows 303 Tasmanians died in the 2004-05 financial year.
An average of 46.7 Australians died per 100,000 people but in Tasmania the figure is up to 60 per 100,000.
It is the highest death rate of all states and second only to the Northern Territory.
The most alarming fact, however, is the state's top billing nationally for unintentional deaths caused by drugs.
The rate is 5.3 deaths per 100,000 -- or 25 cases over the year -- which is well above the national average of 3.7 per 100,000.
The Northern Territory is slightly behind with 5.2 per 100,000.
The number of intentional self-harm deaths of 16.5 per 100,000 -- or 79 cases -- is also above the national rate of 11.5 per 100,000.
The Northern Territory recorded the highest rate of suicide deaths at 24.9 per 100,000.
Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia recorded rates just above the national average and New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT recorded rates below the average.
Tasmanian men continue to dominate the suicide figures with 62 deaths compared to 17 females.
Suicide nationally accounted for 30 per cent of all deaths for males and 13 per cent of all deaths for females.
Tasmania's deaths from unintentional drowning are the highest in the nation with 2.8 per 100,000 -- above the national rate of 1.1 per 100,000.
The number of people accidentally falling to death (13.8 per 100,000) is just above the national average (13.1 per 100,000).
But despite being a state that uses wood as a chief source of heating, the number of deaths caused by fire did not register in the statistics because of the very low number.
DEATH DATA 2004-2005
-Total Australian deaths: 9775
-Males: 63.9 per 100,000
-Women: 30.3 per 100,000
-Most common cause of death was unintentional falls accounting for 29 per cent of fatalities
-People aged over 70 accounted for 90 per cent of all deaths
-Suicide accounted for 24 per cent of all deaths
-Road accidents accounted for 18 per cent of all deaths
-87 per cent of road deaths were caused by car crashes
-65 per cent of road deaths were the passenger
-25 per cent of all injury deaths involved some sort of fracture
-17 per cent of all injury deaths involved head trauma
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