The Australia's Health biennial report released Tuesday "shows that Australia has much to be proud of in terms of health," AIHW director and chief executive Barry Sandison said.

A baby boy born between 2012 and 2014 can expect to live to 80.3 years old and a baby girl's life expectancy is 84.4, and our disease survival rates are rising.

But how well did Australians score on our national report card?

1. We think we're healthy, but we could be kidding ourselves

Australians are optimistic folk, but we might think we're healthier than we really are.

About 85 per cent of Australians aged 15 and over rated their health as 'good', 'very good' or  'excellent' in 2014-2015.

Our self-rated health is better than most developed countries, ranking fourth of 38 OECD nations behind New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

"Most of us consider ourselves to be in good health," Mr Sandison said.

But the burden of health problems is bigger than we like to admit.

Half of all Australians have at least one chronic disease, 19 per cent have a disability and 20 per cent had a mental health disorder in the past 12 months.

A total of 13 per cent still smoke daily, 18 per cent drink alcohol at risky levels and 95 per cent don't eat the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables.

"And while 55 per cent do enough physical activity, 63 per cent of us are overweight or obese," Mr Sandison said. 

2. Australia's new biggest killer 

For the first time cancer has overtaken cardiovascular disease as the biggest overall cause of death in Australia, the report shows.

The total number of deaths due to all types of cancer combined was 44,100 in 2013. Cardiovascular disease accounted for 43,600.

But while the number of cancer cases rose 22 per cent between 1982 and 2016, more people are surviving cancer. Five-year survival rates jumped from 40 to 66 per cent for males and 52 to 68 per cent for females between 1982 and 2011.

Coronary heart disease was still the leading specific cause of death, totalling 19,800 of the 147,700 deaths recorded in Australia that year, though death rates falling by 75 per cent over the past three decades.

The top five disease specific mortality rankings for all deaths in 2013 were: coronary heart disease 13.4 per cent; dementia and Alzheimers 7.4 per cent; cerebrovascular disease 7.1 per cent; lung cancer 5.6 per cent; and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 4.4 per cent.

Cancer also took the greatest toll on those living with disease, accounting for 19 per cent of Australia's disease burden, compared to 15 per cent for cardiovascular disease, and 12 per cent for mental illness and substance-use disorders respectively in 2011.

Leading causes of death, 2013 Photo: AIHW

3. Cash-strapped Aussies are avoiding dental work

Almost one third of people reported delaying or avoiding a visit to the dentist due to the cost in 2013.

People with no private health insurance were more than twice as likely to avoid an appointment as those with insurance (44 per cent vs 20 per cent).

One in five patients who did visit a dentist in the previous 12 months did not have the recommended dental work done due to the cost of the treatment. 

One third of Australians delay or avoid the dentists due to cost. Photo: IStock

4. Too many kids are overweight and obese

Almost one in five Australian children between five and 14 years old were overweight, and 7 per cent were obese in 2014-2015. Fewer than a quarter of people (23 per cent) met the national physical activity recommendations of at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

Australian girls ranked the third worst for overweight and obesity rates among 33 OECD countries. Boys fared slightly better, floating in the middle third of rankings.

Childhood Obesity: Who's to blame? Photo: Getty Image

5. Health expenditure ain't what it used to be 

Health spending had typically increased faster than the growth rates of inflation, population or the economy, but in the past two years health expenditure was relatively slow, according to the report.

An estimated $155 billion was spent on health in Australia, $145 billion was recurrent spending.

Real growth rate was 1.1 per cent between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, and 3.1 per cent from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014, below the average 5 per cent annual growth over the previous decade.

"Those who claim that health expenditure is growing out of control, and the health system is unsustainable need to look very carefully, because the data's not showing that," said health economist at Grattan Institute Dr Stephen Duckett.

The government found savings by shifting costs to consumers by slowing government subsidies for private health insurers, as well as reining in pharmaceutical spending, Dr Duckett said.

The overblown unsustainability rhetoric potentially misleads decision-makers into attempting to push through budget decisions that could be counterproductive, for instance the failed GP Medicare co-payment, he said. 

6. We're saying 'no' to all the right things

Smoking and risky drinking, that is.

The proportion of people aged 14 and over who reported never smoking rose from 58 per cent to 60 per cent in 2013, and the vast majority (81 pr cent) of young people aged 14 to 24 had never smoked.

More than one quarter of young people had never drunk alcohol in 2013, an increase of 16 per cent on 2001 figures. and the non-drinkers rose from 20 per cent of the population in 2010 to 22 per cent in 2013. 

7. Health is still not an equal playing field 

The tyranny of disadvantage, distance and disability to a great extent dictated the health of Australians.

Socioeconomic disadvantage is still linked to higher rates of poor health. If all Australians had the same death rates as the 20 per cent most affluent people, we would have had 54,300 fewer deaths in 2009 and 2011, according to the report.

Adults in the lowest socioeconomic areas were 2.6 times as likely to have diabetes as people in the highest socioeconomic area. They were also 2.2 times as likely to have coronary heart disease, and 1.6 times more likely to have asthma.

People in socio economically disadvantaged areas have poorer health than their more affluent counterparts. 

People in socio economically disadvantaged areas have poorer health than their more affluent counterparts. Photo: AIHW Australia's Health 2016

Indigenous health has improved in recent years, with a drop in smoking and infant mortality, but there were still significant gaps in health outcomes. Indigenous men die 10.6 years earlier than non-Indigenous men and Indigenous women died 9.5 years earlier than non-Indigenous women on average.

Indigenous people also waited longer for elective surgery, with a median wait time of 42 days compared to 35 days for non-Indigenous patients.

Communities outside major cities had higher rates of disease and injury than city dwellers, and were more likely to smoke daily, drink at risky levels, and do little exercise.

Disability was linked to poorer health outcomes. About 43 per cent of people with a disability were obese compared to 25 per cent of people without disability.

People with disability had double the smoking rate of those with no disability and and 22 per cent reported a very high level of psychological distress compared to just 1.2 per cent among the rest of the population.