Australians with cancer are living longer than ever, a flagship health report has revealed, but falling childhood vaccination rates and increasing rates of measles, diphtheria and whooping cough have given experts cause for concern.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) biennial report card, released on Thursday, shows the five-year relative survival rate for people with cancer has increased from 50% to 72% in 30 years.
Though cancer diagnosis rates for people in their 30s and 40s grew between 2000 and 2025, death rates have declined and survival has improved for these demographics.
“People diagnosed with cancer today are surviving longer than ever before, reflecting advances in diagnosis and treatment,” AIHW’s spokesperson Louise Gates said.
Nicholas Chartres, an associate professor and health researcher at the University of Sydney, said more could still be done to prevent cancer.
“Once someone gets diagnosed with cancer, their quality of life after is significantly impacted both physically and psychologically,” Chartres said.
“This is the main issue with this report: that we’re seeing increased life expectancy and there’s a discussion on treatment, but we’re not looking at preventative measures.
“This means Australians live longer, but with poor quality of life.”
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The report shows Australia’s population is continuing to age, and chronic conditions are now responsible for the majority of deaths and disease burden.
But one-third of the nation’s disease burden could be prevented or reduced by modifying risk and environmental factors, the report finds.
Chartres said the regulation of tobacco, which helped drive down smoking rates in the 2000s, could serve as a blueprint for government action in other areas.
“Things like fossil fuels, chemicals, ultra-processed foods that are associated with cancers – we’re not addressing those,” he said.
“[But] we can use the same suite of approaches we use with tobacco to protect us.”
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Childhood immunisation falls
Experts have also expressed concerns about the vaccination data revealed by the AIHW report.
Between September 2020 and September 2025, childhood immunisation fell from 95% to 92% for one-year-olds, from 93% to 90% for two-year-olds and from 95% to 93% for five-year-olds.
“While Australia has long maintained high childhood immunisation rates, these recent declines are concerning, particularly given rising notifications rates for measles, diphtheria and whooping cough,” Gates said.
The decline in vaccination rates since the Covid pandemic can be partially attributed to practical challenges – such as booking appointments and costs – as well as mistrust of healthcare information and concerns over vaccine safety, the report finds.
Downturns have been particularly pronounced for First Nations children, with vaccine coverage for one-year-olds falling by 3.9% between 2020 and 2025, compared with 2.6% for non-Indigenous children.
There have been improvements to First Nations people’s health outcomes in other areas, as smoking and risky alcohol consumption has declined, disease burden has decreased, and First Nations-specific care has expanded.
But more than half the deaths among those under 75 between 2022 and 2024 still stem from potentially avoidable causes.
The report finds Australians have a higher life expectancy at birth, are less likely to smoke every day, more likely to vape regularly, consume more alcohol on average and are more likely to live with obesity compared with the OECD average.
Mental health conditions are also affecting a growing number of Australians, particularly young people.
