There may well be lies, damn lies and statistics. All that means is that some people can misuse statistics. Statistics can also be used for great good. The Australian Bureau of Statistics gathers large amounts of data, collates it and then publishes in a form that tells us something about ourselves. The more we know about ourselves the better chance we have of working at changing what is bad and enhancing what is good.
Last week the bureau published a series on causes of death and life expectancy. Typically, the bureau splits it statistics into states and territories. It is a convenient way of doing things because each of the legal and administrative authorities in each jurisdiction collects data for its own jurisdiction. This is mere happenstance, but it is very informative happenstance.
Often the ACT stands out like a sore thumb. Usually, that is used to bait the national capital as being the odd place out. The Northern Territory is often the other extreme.
So last week we learned that ACT men have the highest life expectancy in Australia, and most likely one of the highest life expectancies in the world. The female life expectancy is also the highest in Australia. We have the lowest infant mortality and the lowest death rate.
Why is it so? There may be many causes. It will be difficult to pinpoint them, but we can certainly point to a lot of correlations, even if they cannot be proved as causations.
The ACT is the most urbanised jurisdiction in Australia. It has the highest average income and one of the most even income distributions of income – we do not have the proportion of mega-wealthy and desperate poor as Sydney and Melbourne. The ACT has the highest average education level. It indicates, perhaps, that proximity to health services and the education to know the importance of using them helps increase life-expectancy.
Then there is the downside. The ACT has the highest level of female participation in the workforce and the highest level of average female income. This participation and income and perhaps the high urbanisation correlates (but is not necessarily the cause of) the high levels of breast cancer and female lung cancer in Australia – indeed they are the highest. Whether they are as high as a sample taken from an affluent area of Sydney or Melbourne is not stated.
The Northern Territory with its greater inequality of income spread; the greater isolation of more of its people; the higher proportion of indigenous people; and its lower education levels has poorer health and life-expectancy outcomes.
If the aim of civil society is to have more people living longer, happier and more fulfilling lives we need to study and act on these statistics more diligently. Of themselves, the statistics do not lie.