Cancer is Australia's biggest killer

An official report shows that cancer is the leading cause of death and disability in Australia.

The report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says cancer, at 19 percent, has overtaken cardiovascular disease, at 18 percent, as the leading cause of "burden of disease" in the nation.

AIHW spokesman John Goss said there had been a reduction of 35 percent in cardiovascular disease burden rates in the last decade.

"Burden of disease analysis goes beyond the mortality impact of a disease, as it also looks at the impact of illness and disability," he said. "The amount of healthy life years lost due to disability from disease and injury made up 51 percent of the total."

Goss said the five leading causes of non-fatal burden of disease in Australia were anxiety and depression (14 percent of the non-fatal burden); Type-2 diabetes (8 percent); dementia (5 percent); adult-onset hearing loss (5 percent); and asthma (4 percent).

Of the 14 preventable health risks examined in the report, tobacco at 7.8 percent of the total, was responsible for the greatest burden.