• Summary of publication
• Errata for the 2005 print edition
• Past publications in this series

• There were 27,141 deaths registered in New Zealand in 2005. Compared to the equivalent period a decade ago (ie 1995), this represents a 2.9 percent decrease.
• In 2005, females accounted for 153 more deaths (13,647 total female deaths; an age-standardised rate of 357.2 deaths per 100,000) than males (13,494 total male deaths; an age-standardised rate of 514.2).
• There were 2712 Māori deaths in 2005 (1483 males, 1229 females), accounting for 10 percent of total deaths. This gives an age-standardised rate of 857.0 for Māori males and 646.0 for Māori females.

• There were 7971 deaths from cancer in 2005 (4184 males and 3787 females).
• Cancer was the leading cause of death for both males and females in 2005.
• The age-standardised rate of cancer death has shown a downward trend from 1987 to 2005, with a 21.1 percent decrease for males and 19.0 percent decrease for females over the period.
• Males had a consistently higher age-standardised rate of cancer death over this time, and, in 2005, the male rate was 34.0 percent higher than the female rate.
• The Māori population had a consistently higher rate of cancer death than the non-Māori population, and Māori males had a higher rate than Māori females. In 2005, the calculated Māori male rate was 55.6 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate.
• Māori females had a calculated rate of cancer death that was 83.5 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate in 2005.

• Ischaemic heart disease was the second leading cause of death after cancer in 2005, with 5807 deaths. Males accounted for 52.6 percent of these deaths, but the male age-standardised rate was nearly twice the female rate in 2005.
• In 2005, the calculated Māori male age-standardised rate of death from ischaemic heart disease was 87.8 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate, and the calculated Māori female rate was 102.9 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.

• Cerebrovascular disease was the third leading cause of death in the total population in 2005, after cancer and ischaemic heart disease.
• There were 2587 deaths from cerebrovascular disease in 2005 and the majority (63.7 percent) were female deaths.
• Māori females had the highest age-standardised mortality rate of the four groups in 2005, followed by Māori males. The calculated Māori male age-standardised rate was 16.2 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate in 2005, and the calculated Māori female rate was 43.6 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.

• There were 839 deaths from diabetes mellitus in 2005, with slightly more male (53.3 percent) than female deaths.
• The male age-standardised rate of death from diabetes has shown an upward trend from 1987 to 2005, with a 50.9 percent increase over the period. The female age-standardised rate over the same period increased by 27.7 percent.
• Males had a consistently higher age-standardised rate of death from diabetes mellitus over this time, and, in 2005, the male rate was 54.0 percent higher than the female rate.
• The calculated Māori male age-standardised rate of diabetes mellitus was 300 percent higher than the non-Māori male rate in 2005, and the calculated Māori female rate was 428 percent higher than the non-Māori female rate.

Past publications in this series