Epidemiologic Transition in Australia - The Last Hundred Years

Heather Booth, Leonie Tickle and Jiaying Zhao

Mortality change in Australia since 1907 is analysed in the light of Epidemiologic Transition theory. Australia began the twentieth century in the second age of the Epidemiologic Transition, the Age of Receding Pandemics. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Australia was a leader in the Transition with a life expectancy about 4 years higher than many other Western countries.

By 1950, however, this advantage had been lost. Nevertheless, Australia probably moved to the third Age of Degenerative and Man-Made Diseases before 1946, which is slightly in advance of most Western countries. Transition to the fourth Age of Delayed Degenerative Diseases, is clearly marked by a downturn in about 1970 in circulatory disease mortality, concurrent with other Western countries.