Deaths of children in NSW in 2016 and 2017: overview and trends

In 2016 and 2017, 981 children aged 0-17 years died in NSW. This was 463 children in 2016 and 518 children in 2017 – a mortality rate of 26.8 and 29.8 deaths per 100,000 children aged 0-17 years, respectively.

As shown in Table 1, more than half the children who died were male. The majority of children who died  were infants – almost three quarters died in the neonatal period, aged less than 29 days. Almost a  third of children who died were living in the most disadvantaged areas in NSW.

Trends in mortality

Over the 15 years to 2017, the mortality rate for children has significantly declined (Figure 1). This mostly reflects a significant decline in infant deaths. However, the overall decline in the rate has not been uniform.  For example, in the five-year period 2013-2017, the rate was higher for:

• Male children (1.2 times as high as for females)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children –particularly infants and young people aged
  15-17 years (2 times as high as for non-Indigenous children)
• Children in remote areas – despite the majority of children living in major cities (1.8 times as high as for children in major cities)
• Children living in the most disadvantaged areas of the state (2.3 times as high for children in the most disadvantaged areas as for those in least disadvantaged areas).

Leading causes of death

A cause of death was determined for 916 of the 981 children (Table 2).

The majority of children died from natural causes.

Almost one in five of the children died as a result of injury. The majority of deaths were from unintentional (accidental) injury. One-third of injury related deaths were intentional and resulted from suicide (54) and abuse (12).

Leading causes of death vary by age group (Figure 2).  In 2016 and 2017, the leading causes were consistent with trends observed over the last 15 years – with  the exception of suicide. For children aged 10-14 years, suicide was the second leading cause of death, following cancers and tumours. For young people aged 15-17 years, suicide accounted for one-third of all deaths, followed by transport-related deaths.

Trends in causes of death

Over the 15 years 2003 to 2017, the mortality rate for natural causes significantly declined. This mostly reflects a decline in deaths from perinatal conditions.

Over the same period, there was a significant decline in the rate of unintentional injury-related deaths. This can be attributed to reductions in transport and drowning-related fatalities.

However, there has been a significant increase in the suicide rate for children and young people aged 10-17 years. The rate in 2017 was the highest observed in the 15-year period.

This page contains key information from the Biennial Report of the deaths of children in New South Wales: 2016 and 2017.

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NSW Child Death Review Team
NSW Ombudsman
Level 24, 580 George Street  
Sydney NSW 2000

Email cdrt@ombo.nsw.gov.au

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© State of New South Wales, June 2019
This publication is released under a Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0.