Report reveals 40 as the most dangerous age for Australians

According to a recent Suncorp Life report entitled Year of Living Dangerously, the age of 40 is the most dangerous year of Australians’ lives, challenging the commonly held belief that risk-taking adolescents are the most accident-prone generation.

The age of 40 as the ‘year of living dangerously’ is determined as the average age of death across five accidental death categories (roads, poisoning, falls, drowning and choking) among Australians aged up to 74 years old. Accident data was analysed for the 2008 calendar year from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport and Work Safe Australia.

The report analyses the top five causes of accidental death in Australia and, surprisingly, found that those in the prime of their life are more likely to die by accident than any other generation. It challenges commonly held beliefs about risk taking by young Australians, and shows that those about to enter middle age are the ‘unlucky generation’.

“Surprisingly, our report finds New South Wales as the safest state per capita with 1.7 accidental deaths for every 100,000 people, lower than the Australian average of 2.3 and significantly lower than the most dangerous state Western Australia which recorded 3.5 deaths for every 100,000 people,” Suncorp Life CEO Geoff Summerhayes said.

Of the 559 accidental deaths in NSW during the review period:

• 41% were on our roads;
• 32% died by poisoning;
• 12% fell to their death;
• 8% drowned; and
• 7% choked to death.

“Unexpectedly, it is not the young who are most at risk of accidental death, but those approaching middle age, with 40 years old the average year of death across the top five accident categories,” continued Summerhayes. “By the time you turn 40, it’s likely you’ll have a mortgage. You may also have a young family that needs looking after and in some cases elderly relatives that need caring for too. Yet 40 years old is the most dangerously year of all, and most people don’t even know it.”

New South Wales represented a significant 25% of the national 2277 accidental deaths recorded during the review period, however due to the size of its population, it is considered the safest state in the country.

From a generational point of view:

• Generation Z (0-18 years) is most prone to drowning;
• Generation Y (19-30 years) is the most dangerous on our roads with the highest incidence of road deaths;
• Generation X (31-45 years) is most likely to suffer from accidental poisoning; and
• While the baby boomer generation (46-64 years) is most at risk from choking deaths and falls.

The five categories of accidental death are those specified by the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Data on other ICD categories of accidental death, such as suicide, as well as accidental deaths among Australians aged 75 years or older have been excluded from the calculation to ensure its relevance to insurable events/persons.