A new report commissioned by the funeral industry shows Katherine has the highest death rate of 13.6 per cent out of 1000 people per year, dubbing it the countries “deadliest place to live”.  

But there are many causes that could contribute to this with more men dying each year than women – 103 men for every 100 women.

Another factor to be considered is the age barrier with the highest number of deaths occurring within a five year age bracket of 85 to 89.

The data recovered by the McCrindle research team also found that there is still a significant life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians with areas that hold the highest death rates having a higher indigenous population.

For non-indigenous Australians the median age of death for males in 2012 was 78.7 and females was 84.7,  whereas for indigenous Australians the median age of death for males was 55 and for females it was 61.3.

Katherine Town Council Mayor Fay Miller said the results hold a tainted view on death’s within the community, instilling Katherine “is a great place to live, work and raise a family.”

“It would be interesting to see the actual number of deaths per capita, we could be a small number above anywhere else, but percentages usually give a disjointed perception,” she said.

“Notwithstanding the high indigenous population in our region whose life expectancy is unfortunately statistically shorter.”

The data also reveled hot and humid weather made for a bad time of the year, with January being dubbed the deadliest month for the past four years.

The Deaths and Funerals in Australia report also revealed some good news on the sombre subject with the death rate continuing to decline at 6.5 deaths per 1000, down from 6.9 a decade ago.

Australia has more than twice as many births as deaths with more than 300,000 annual births compared to less than 150,000 annual deaths.

In good news, infant deaths continue to decline, dropping from 397 in 2002 to 312 in 2012.