Australian mortality data suggest greater rates of dementia as the underlying cause of death for woman compared with men, particularly after 85 years of age (Fig.A). These findings, and similar reports from other countries, have been challenged by recent reviews that suggest susceptibility to dementia diagnosis and death is sex-equivalent. Our objective was to investigate sex-specific rates of death with dementia as the underlying or associated cause, considering age and the year of death. We obtained unit record data on all deaths in Australia with underlying and associated causes of death from 2006–2014. We ran a series of Poisson regression models estimating relative rates of deaths with dementia by sex over 50 years of age. We investigated models for deaths with dementia mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, and then as either the underlying or associated cause of death. Crude rates were estimated and rates adjusted for age at death (in single years) and year of death. For all dementia deaths, that the crude relative rate for women compared to men was 1.63 [95%CI:1.62–1.65]. For dementia deaths as the underlying cause, the crude relative rate for women was 1.88 [95%CI:1.85–1.91], and for dementia deaths mentioned as an associated cause, the relative rate for women was 1.46 [95%CI:1.44–1.48]. After adjusting for age and year of death, the relative rates were attenuated: for all dementia deaths, the rate for women compared to men reduced to 0.98 [95%CI:0.97–0.99]; for dementia as the underlying cause of death, 1.12 [95%CI:1.10–1.13], and for associated cause, 0.89 [95%CI:0.88–0.90]. Dementia death rates as the underlying cause increased from 2006–2014 (Fig.B), while death rates with dementia as an associated cause decreased over the same period (Fig.C).