health in australia health in australia australia is a high income country, and this is reflected in the good status of health of the population overall. in 2011, australia ranked 2nd on the united nations development programme’s human development index, indicating the level of development of a country. despite the overall good status of health, the disparities occurring in the australian healthcare system are a problem. the poor and those living in remote areas as well as indigenous people are, in general, less healthy than others in the population, and programs have been implemented to decrease this gap. these include increased outreach to the indigenous communities and government subsidies to provide services for people in remote or rural areas. australia's human development index and component indicators for 2015 relative to selected countries and groups hdi value hdi rank life expectancy at birth expected years of schooling mean years of schooling gni per capita (ppp usd) australia 0.939 2 82.5 20.4 13.2 42,822 canada 0.920 10 82.2 16.3 13.1 42,582 new zealand 0.915 13 82.0 19.2 12.5 32,870 oecd 0.887 - 80.3 15.9 11.9 37,916 very high hdi 0.892 - 79.4 16.4 12.2 39,605 life expectancy life expectancy at birth in australia life expectancy in australia is among the highest in the world. according to the 2013 global burden of disease study australia was ranked third highest in life expectancy. the life expectancy (at birth) in 2015 was estimated to be 79.7 years for males and 84.74 years for females. in 2018 the average number of years a newborn australian child would live if current mortality patterns were to stay the same was 82.9 years, this has increased from 69.3 years since 1950. in 2015, the crude birth rate was 13.3 per 1,000 people, while the total fertility rate in 2018 was 1.83. the crude death rate in 2018 was 6.7 per 1,000 people. the infant mortality rate was 3 per 1,000 live births. in 2002/2004, less than 2.5% of the population was undernourished. life expectancy in australia is above the global average of 72 years as of 2016. under 5 mortality rate (u5mr) since 1950, australia’s u5mr has dropped from 31.6 deaths per 1000 live births to 8.85 deaths in 1990 to 3.4 currently in 2018. the global u5mr was 93 deaths in 1990 and was recorded at 40.8 in 2016. disability adjusted life years the top ranked causes of disability-adjusted life years (dalys) lost for australian citizens as of 2016 for all ages and sexes were: neoplasms – 3,751 dalys per 100,000 population mental disorders – 3,216 dalys per 100,000 musculoskeletal disorders – 2,956 dalys per 100,000 cardiovascular diseases – 2,895 dalys per 100,000 since 2013 australia's total dalys has been slightly increasing each year. causes of death