Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024
Australians lost 5.8 million years of healthy life in 2024, and more than a third of that burden was preventable.
KEY FINDINGS
The Australian Burden of Disease Study (ABDS) is the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's national estimate of how much ill health, disability and premature death is caused by disease and injury in Australia. The 2024 edition covers 220 diseases and injuries and 20 individual risk factors, using disability-adjusted life years (DALY) as its core measure, a single number combining years lost to premature death with years lived with illness or injury.
It is the most comprehensive population-level picture available of what is actually making Australians unwell, and how much of that is preventable.
In 2024, Australians lost an estimated 5.8 million years of healthy life, measured in disability-adjusted life years. Living with illness or injury, rather than dying prematurely, accounted for 54% of that burden, a reminder that much of the cost of poor health is carried over decades, not only at the end of life.
Overweight (including obesity) and tobacco use were the leading contributing risk factors, and the AIHW estimates 36% of the total burden could have been avoided or reduced by addressing modifiable risk factors.
Taken together, the 2024 figures make a straightforward case. Most of the health Australians lose is not sudden or unavoidable. It accumulates over years, through conditions and risk factors that can be measured well before they ever become a diagnosis.
That burden is also concentrated. A small number of conditions account for a large share of it, shown below, which is why knowing where you stand against them early is far from academic. It is the reasoning behind a broad, regularly repeated baseline: not to predict any single outcome, but to surface the measurable signals behind the conditions that matter most, while there is still room to act.
