Australia is concerned that people are dying at an 'incredibly high' rate and it's unclear why

Australia's top actuarial body has called on the government to urgently investigate the country's "incredibly high" 13% excess death rate in 2022.

What happened: An analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data by the Institute of Actuaries showed an additional 15,400 people died in the first eight months of the year in the country.

Actuaries said that number includes about a third of those unrelated to COVID-19.

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13% was an "incredibly high number for mortality," and what was driving the increase was "unclear," said Karen Cutter, gatekeeper. word of the institute's Covid-19 Mortality Task Force.

"Mortality normally does not vary by more than 1-2%, so 13% is much higher than normal levels," she said.

"I'm not aware of [anything comparable] in the recent past, but I haven't gone back and looked [historically]. They say that the 2017 flu season was really bad, and the mortality there was 1% higher than normal, so it's well outside the range of normal,” she said.

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This came after the latest Australian mortality data released in November showed there were 128,797 deaths between January 1 and August 31, or 17% more than the historical average.

This story was originally published on December 7, 2022.

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