Mortality 2015 data tables

These tables contain information on the underlying causes of all deaths registered in New Zealand in 2015. A ‘Quick facts’ section also includes information on rates of death by ethnicity and selected causes of mortality.

Most information is broken down by age, sex, ethnicity, district health board and statistical classification chapters, subgroups and three character codes.

These tables form part of the Mortality and Demographic Data annual series.

This data is sourced from the Mortality Collection.

Quick facts

• There were 31,796 deaths registered in 2015, equating to an age-standardised rate of 380.1 deaths per 100,000 population.
• Males accounted for 15,929 deaths in 2015, slightly higher than for females (15,867).
• Māori accounted for 3,413 deaths in 2015, 10.7% of all deaths registered.
• The leading causes of death were cancer, ischaemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases. Cancer deaths made up 30.2% of all deaths, ischaemic heart diseases 15.8% and cerebrovascular diseases 7.8% in 2015.
• For Māori, the leading causes of death in 2015 were cancer, ischaemic heart diseases and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
• Similar to previous years, mortality rates were generally higher for males than for females. For example, males had higher mortality rates for melanoma and ischaemic heart diseases compared with females in 2015.
• As seen in previous years, mortality rates for Māori were generally higher than for non-Māori. For example, Māori had higher mortality rates for diabetes mellitus and chronic lower respiratory diseases compared with non-Māori in 2015.

Note: rates per 100,000 population, age standardised to WHO World Standard Population.