Deaths in Australia climbed across nearly all states and territories in the year to June.
Experts say the increase stems from Australia's growing and ageing population, and is not a side effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show in 2019-20, there were 166,974 deaths across Australia, up from 163,013 in 2018-19.
It was the highest year-on-year increase in the six years of data released by the bureau.
In the ACT, the number of deaths rose to 2189, above the previous peak of 2167 in 2017-18.
More than 900 people have died of COVID-19 in Australia this year. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare this week noted the pandemic might have limited people's access to and use of some health services.
Australian National University demographer Dr Liz Allen said the increase reflected Australia's ageing population and not adverse impacts from the pandemic.
"Deaths are expected to increase in line with the demographic distribution of baby boomers at older ages," Dr Allen said.
Data collected by the ABS during the COVID-19 pandemic actually shows excess deaths in Australia have declined this year, Dr Allen said.
"The decline in excess deaths is due to the additional public health measures Australians have taken during 2020; for example, washing hands, social distancing, avoiding work when sick, and flu vaccination," she said.
Australian Medical Association ACT president Dr Antonio Di Dio said generally, death rates increased as populations rose.
While other countries saw a rise in deaths as hospitals became overloaded and patients delayed seeking healthcare, Dr Dio said this had not happened in Australia.
"I certainly don't think [the increase in deaths] was due to a misallocation of resources. In some countries millions of dollars went into COVID and not elsewhere. In the ACT we spent many millions on a potential overflow emergency department at Garran. You'll get zero criticism from me there, that was good public policy but in some countries it happened so quick [diversions happened]," he said.
"When we were really scared about the coronavirus in March this year Breastscreen clinics made a unilateral decision to shut down for a few months. Brendan Murphy said at the time if there was no breast screening for a whole year a couple thousands of women could die from breast cancers. It could have happened but it didn't because the clinics reopened."
The ACT's overall population rose to 431,114 in the June quarter, up 1.1 per cent.
The territory had a net loss of 650 people when comparing interstate arrivals and departures.
It followed a loss of around 200 people in 2018-19, but three years of net gains before that.
The fall was offset a net gain of more than 2100 people due to overseas migration.
However net overseas migration figures were at a six-year low, off the back of coronavirus travel restrictions in the first half of 2020.
It follows a political stoush over whether Canberrans were been driven over the border by rising costs of living ahead of this year's ACT election.
Former Opposition leader Alistair Coe said 3500 people had moved from Canberra to the Queanbeyan and Yass regions in the most recent census period. He even held up the number of ACT number plates outside the sales office at Googong as evidence of a mass exodus.
But Labor argued migration between the ACT and all of NSW favoured the territory, with a net migration to Canberra of 3690.
There were also around 5500 babies born in the ACT in the year to June.
This is higher than the past two years, but below the peak of 5700 babies in 2015-16.
The territory's fertility rate rose to 1.6 births per woman, the highest since 2017 but still below the national rate of 1.65.
Meanwhile, the ACT employment rate has risen for a second straight month since JobKeeper was wound back in September.
The national jobless figures also showed a significant improvement, falling by 0.2 percentage points to 7.8 per cent.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the ACT's employed have fallen by 2.3 per cent, and the unemployment rate has risen another 0.1 percentage points to 4.0 per cent. The participation rate in the ACT has fallen to 75.3 per cent.
The ACT's underemployment rate has fallen sharply however, from 7.6 per cent to 5.7 per cent.
- with Harley Dennett
