NEW ZEALAND HEALTH INFORMATION SERVICE
Mortality and Demographic Data 2004
Annual statistical publication that collates and analyses information on the underlying causes of all deaths registered in New Zealand. The commentary summarises key facts, mortality rates, trends and major causes of death by age group, and sex.
Selected facts from the publication:
Major causes of mortality in 2004
- There were 28,636 deaths registered in New Zealand in 2004. Compared to the equivalent period a decade ago (ie 1994), this represents a 5.7 percent increase.
- In 2004, females accounted for 234 more deaths (14,435 total female deaths; an age-standardised rate of 326.3 deaths per 100,000) than males (14,201 total male deaths; an age-standardised rate of 465.3).
- There were 2735 Māori deaths in 2004 (1498 males, 1237 females), accounting for 9.6 percent of total deaths. This gives an age-standardised rate of 787.1 for Māori males and 579.1 for Māori females.
Selected trends
Cancer
- There were 8145 deaths from cancer in 2004 (4246 males and 3899 females).
- Cancer was the leading cause of death for both males and females in 2004
- The age-standardised rate of cancer death has shown a downward trend from 1987 to 2004, with an 18.9 percent decrease for males and 15.5 percent decrease for females over the period.
- Males had a consistently higher age-standardised rate of cancer death over this time, and in 2004 the male rate was 28.1 percent higher than the female rate.
- The Māori population consistently had a higher rate of cancer death than the non-Māori population. In 2004, the calculated Māori male rate was 60.6 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate.
- Māori females had a calculated rate of cancer death that was 80.2 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate in 2004.
Ischaemic heart disease
- Ischaemic heart disease was the second leading cause of death after cancer in 2004, with 6313 deaths. Males accounted for 53.3 percent of these deaths, but the male age-standardised rate was twice the female rate in 2004.
- In 2004 the calculated Māori male age-standardised rate of death from ischaemic heart disease was 84 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate, and the calculated Māori female rate was 74 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.
Cerebrovascular disease
- Cerebrovascular disease was the third leading cause of death in the total population in 2004, after cancer and ischaemic heart disease.
- There were 2806 deaths from cerebrovascular disease in 2004 and the majority (62.6 percent) were female deaths.
- Māori males had the highest age-standardised rate of the four ethnic groupings analysed in 2004, followed by Māori females. The calculated Māori male age-standardised rate was 26.6 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate in 2004 and the calculated Māori female rate was 45.7 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.
Diabetes mellitus
- There were 843 deaths from Diabetes Mellitus in 2004, with slightly more male deaths (52.0 percent) than females.
- The male age-standardised rate of death from diabetes has shown an upward trend from 1987 to 2004, with a 53.3 percent increase over the period; the female age-standardised rate over the same period increased by 29.3 percent.
- Males had a consistently higher age-standardised rate of death from diabetes mellitus over this time, and in 2004 the male rate was 52.4 percent higher than the female rate.
- The calculated Māori male age-standardised rate of diabetes mellitus was 479 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate in 2004 and the calculated Māori female rate was 456 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.
The statistical tables accompanying this publication can be downloaded as a Zip archive (957 KB) containing a set of Excel files, and the publication can be downloaded as a PDF file (1 MB)
To order the printed publication, contact the Publications Officer, NZHIS, PO Box 5013, Wellington, phone (04) 816 2870, fax (04) 816 2898, e-mail nzhis-pub@moh.govt.nz.
57 pages, A4
A limited number of hardcopy publications are available free of charge
ISBN 978-0-478-30796-2 (print)
ISBN 978-0-478-30799-3 (online)
The 2002 and 2003, (377 KB), 2001 (PDF, 597 KB), 2000 (PDF, 407 KB), 1999 (PDF, 1 MB), 1998 (PDF, 418 KB), 1997 (PDF, 684 KB) and 1996 (PDF, 649 KB) issues of this publication are also available.
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