Australian death rate in first year of Covid pandemic was lowest on record

Covid mortalities were low in 2020 but increased due to Omicron, with Covid deaths in 2022 already more than double that of the previous two years. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

The death rate in 2020 was the lowest ever recorded, according to newly released data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In 2020, 627.8 people per 100,000 died of any cause, a figure that has trended steadily downwards since the 1940s. There were 161,300 deaths in total.