Overview

Good health and wellbeing is important – it influences not just how a person feels, but has impacts for society as a whole. The availability and quality of health and welfare programs are central to delivering these outcomes, but difficult to evaluate. Information about expenditure on health and welfare gives an indication of the priority placed on these goods and services among all others in the economy. In Australia, more is spent on health and welfare, both in dollar terms and as a proportion of spending overall, than any other type of expenditure.

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In 2023–24, spending on hospitals was $113.8 billion, a real increase of 1.2% compared with the previous year
Total health expenditure was $270.5 billion, equating to $10,037 per person or 10.1% of total economic activity
In 2023–24, spending on primary health care was $89.1 billion, a real decrease of 0.5% compared with 2022–23
Government health spending was 16.8% of total government expenses, down 0.3 percentage points from 2022–23

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Latest findings

In 2023–24, $7.7 billion was spent on PPH, 8.5% of total admitted patient spending

PPH accounted for 3.14 million bed days across Australian hospitals

In 2023–24, cancer had the highest spending followed by cardiovascular diseases and musculoskeletal disorders

Spending on cancer more than doubled from 2013–14 to 2023–24 and has been the highest ranked disease group since 2017–18

Total health expenditure was $270.5 billion, equating to $10,037 per person or 10.1% of total economic activity

Government health spending was 16.8% of total government expenses, down 0.3 percentage points from 2022–23