Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show death rates for Asia-born residents are 36 per cent lower than those for Australian-born residents.

Asian-born residents had lower mortality rates for all 10 leading causes of death except liver cancer. Their death rate from liver cancer was twice that of Australian-born residents.

Death rates for women born in continental Europe were 24 per cent lower than those for Australian-born women, while death rates for European-born men were 15 per cent lower than those for Australian-born men.

European-born residents were less than half as likely to die of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema or bronchitis, as Australian-born residents.

Australian residents born in Britain or Ireland were more likely than Australian-born residents to die of dementia, Alzheimer's disease or lung cancer, but less likely to die of bowel cancer or heart failure.

Death rates for indigenous Australians were higher than those for non-indigenous Australians across all age groups, but the difference was most pronounced in the 35-to-44 age group, in which indigenous people died at five times the rate of their non-indigenous counterparts.

Among all Australians, the death rate for males was 1.5 times that of females.

Death rates for people living in remote areas were 1.4 times as high as those of city dwellers, and death rates for people living in the areas of lowest socioeconomic status were 1.3 times as high as for those living in the highest.

Institute spokeswoman Louise York said the groups with the worst death rates tended to die from causes that in many cases were considered preventable or treatable.

On Wednesday indigenous, health and business leaders called for federal Parliament to act on the social determinants of health, such as education, employment and housing. The government is yet to respond to a senate committee report released in 2013 that recommended Parliament adopt a World Health Organisation plan to address the issue.

Tom Calma, the founding chairman of the Close the Gap campaign, said the inequality in health outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians could not be fixed without addressing racism in all its forms.