Explore welfare topics

Different supports and services are critical to the welfare and wellbeing of individuals and their families.

Access to safe, affordable and suitable housing is essential to wellbeing.

Participation in education provides foundations for academic and life success and education supports employment, income, health and life satisfaction.

Having a job helps people support themselves, their families and communities. The government provides help with employment and income support.

Formal and informal support and connection can be vital and contribute to our wellbeing.

A person’s experience of crime and personal safety can affect their wellbeing.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, welfare and health are closely linked. Physical, social, emotional, cultural, spiritual and ecological wellbeing are important, for both the individual and the community.

Explore additional population groups

Explore the Australia's children, Australia’s youth, Older Australians, People with disability and Veterans reports for information on education, social support, justice and safety, income, housing and more.

Explore wellbeing indicators

The Treasury's Measuring what matters framework includes 50 indicators across 5 wellbeing themes.
Measuring what matters: Dashboard

About Australia’s welfare 2023

Glossary  Media release

Australia's welfare 2023 is the AIHW's 16th biennial welfare report. It explores topical welfare issues and brings together multiple data sources to serve as a report card on the welfare of Australians. Australia’s welfare is framed around ‘welfare’ in its broadest sense – welfare refers to the wellbeing of individuals, families and the community. Welfare and wellbeing are often used interchangeably – see Understanding welfare and wellbeing.

Australia’s welfare 2023 consists of 3 products:

Australia’s welfare 2023: data insights is a collection of 9 in-depth articles on selected welfare topics, including a focus on homelessness and housing affordability, employment and income support following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of a strong evidence base for supporting the wellbeing of Australians.

Australia’s welfare topic summaries present key information and statistics on housing, education and skills, employment and income, social support, justice and safety, and First Nations people across 42 web pages. Available online as web pages (some updated when new data are available).

Australia’s welfare 2023: in brief presents key findings and concepts to tell the story of welfare and wellbeing in Australia.
Available to download as a PDF or you can purchase a hardcopy.

Welfare data

Data are essential to understand how people engage with and navigate welfare services, and are useful for policy formulation, implementation and service delivery, and evaluation.

The AIHW manages a number of national information assets, and works with state and territory governments, the ABS, other independent bodies and the non-government sector, to ensure the data included in Australia’s welfare 2023 are comprehensive, accurate and informative. Despite recent improvements and enhancements, gaps exist where there are no national data currently available or where data collected are not comprehensive.

The AIHW’s flagship reports, Australia’s health and Australia’s welfare, are highly regarded as sources of authoritative and accessible information.