Death comes for us all ... but how?

Even though Australia's population has been growing at a rapid pace and we're set to break the 25 million mark later today, more than 750,000 Australians have passed away in the past five years.

These are the most likely causes.

National health data shows about 40 per cent of deaths in Australia in the past five years could be traced back to six causes – heart attacks, dementia, lung cancer, strokes, lung disease and diabetes.

But what are the top causes of death in your area? If you type your local council area into this interactive, we will show you the top 10 causes of death there.

You probably would have noticed that the top five causes of death in your area were largely the same as the top five causes throughout Australia. Heart attacks are by far the biggest cause of death nationwide, and are the number one killer in almost every local government area in the country.

Where you might notice a difference is in the rate of deaths due to a particular culprit. Your area may have experienced a higher rate of lung cancer, heart attacks or dementia than the rest of the country.

That could be a sign that there is a high proportion of smokers or unhealthy people in your area, but it could also be because the population in your area skews older.

And even though the top five causes of death don't differ much around the country, once you look a bit further down the list of top causes you will start noticing some variations.

For example, in the City of Melbourne, drug overdoses were the seventh most common cause of death. There were also a disproportionate number of overdoses in Yarra, where the state's first supervised injecting room is based in north Richmond, and in Port Phillip, the council area that contains St Kilda's concentration of rooming houses.

Drug overdoses were also the seventh most common cause of death in the central business districts of Sydney and Perth.

In the Hume municipality, in Melbourne's north, which includes Glenroy and Broadmeadows, the sixth most common cause of death was influenza, while in Ararat – the rural town that was dubbed the fattest in Australia a few years ago – deaths from diabetes were more than twice the national rate.

If you want to compare the top causes of death in your area with that of the entire nation, here are the top 20 causes of death for all of Australia between 2012 and 2016. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare had the grim task of counting 765,911 deaths over these five years to compile this table.

The data also shows some state by state variations when it comes to the top causes of death.

If you live in Victoria, you are considerably more likely to die of accidental falls or the flu than those in other states or territories. Falls were the 10th most common cause of death while influenza was the 11th.

But in Queensland, a larger proportion of people die from skin cancer. The rate of melanoma deaths was 25 per cent higher than the national rate and the 15th most common cause of death overall.

In the Northern Territory and Western Australia, you are far more likely to die in a car crash. Road deaths were the sixth most common cause of death in the Northern Territory (three times higher than the national rate) and the 18th most common cause in Western Australia.

Violent assaults were also the 20th most common cause of death in the Northern Territory, five times the rate of elsewhere in the country.

The AIHW data shows the median age of Australians who died between 2012 and 2016 was 78 for men and 84 for women.

Heart disease was the biggest killer of those aged 45-64 and people over the age of 75. Heart attacks came in a distinct second among those aged 65-74.

Among those aged between 15 to 44, suicide was the most common cause of death.

If you are troubled by this report or experiencing a personal crisis, you can call Lifeline 131 114 or beyondblue 1300 224 636 or visit lifeline.org.au or beyondblue.org.au