CANBERRA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Life expectancy at birth in Australia has fallen for the second consecutive year, official figures released on Friday revealed.

According to data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), life expectancy at birth was 81.1 years for Australian boys born between 2021 and 2023 and 85.1 years for girls born in the same period.

It marks a slight decline in life expectancy at birth from 81.2 years for boys and 85.3 years for girls born between 2020 and 2022. Those born between 2019 and 2021 had record-high life expectancies of 81.3 years for boys and 85.4 years for girls.

The ABS attributed the decline to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The years 2021-2023 saw the highest number of COVID-19 deaths with 15,982 in Australia, which was up by 4,100 from 2020-2022," Beidar Cho, head of demography at the ABS, said.

"As a result, life expectancy has fallen by 0.1 years for men and 0.2 years for women over this period." Enditem

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