Measures of health and health care for Australia and similar countries

Comparing health and health care data between countries allows us to compare Australian experiences on a global scale and supports policy, planning and decision making. This page provides a high-level comparison of international health data. The interactive visualisation on this page allows you to compare data from the 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, including Australia, across a range of health and health care indicators, with a focus on Australia’s international performance. OECD member countries provide a useful comparison for Australia because almost all have high-income economies (World Bank 2023).

For information on health indicators at a national level, see Australia's Health Performance Framework indicators.

All data reported on this page are derived from OECD Health Statistics 2023 (OECD 2023). The latest year of data available for some countries on these indicators at the time of this report was 2022, and where this was not available, the latest available year has been used, from 2010 onwards.

Where possible, this page has provided more recent Australian statistics which have been provided to the OECD and are expected to be updated on the OECD database in 2024.

For contextual information about health and how we measure health, see Understanding health and health data. For further detail on definitions, sources, notes, indicators, and data availability, please refer to the OECD website.

How does Australia’s health compare with other OECD countries?

In general, Australia compares well with other OECD countries on many health measures. In particular, Australia’s results are more favourable than the OECD average for many indicators, including perceived health status, mortality and public and private health insurance coverage. Some exceptions to this include alcohol consumption and overweight or obesity risk factors.

Figure 1 compares various health indicators such as life expectancy, health risk factors and health insurance across 38 OECD countries in 2022 or the nearest year. Please note, data reported in this figure were the latest available at the time of writing. For the latest available data for each measure, visit OECD data explorer.

Figure 1: How does Australia compare?

Life expectancy, mortality and causes of death

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Australia had the fifth lowest rate of mortality from Diseases of the circulatory system among the 38 OECD countries, at 164.5 deaths per 100,000 population (2021 – age standardised to the 2015 OECD population).
• Australia’s infant mortality rate (with no minimum threshold of gestation period or birthweight) was 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births (2021) – in the middle at 21^st out of 38 OECD countries and lower than the OECD average of 4.1 deaths per 1,000 live births. Japan experienced the lowest rate of infant mortality (1.7 deaths per 1,000 live births).
• Australia’s life expectancy at birth was equal fourth highest with Spain at 83.3 years (2021) – above the OECD average of 80.3 years. The highest life expectancy out of the 38 OECD countries was in Japan, where people could expect to live 84.5 years at birth.

Health status and morbidity

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Among the 38 OECD countries, Colombia (9.9%, 2021), Greece (9.7%, 2021), and Japan (9.4%, 2021) had the highest proportion of low birthweight babies. The proportion of low birthweight babies in Australia was 6.3% (2021), 16^th lowest of the OECD countries and slightly lower than the OECD average, 6.5% of total live births.
• Among those aged 15 and over, Australians were fourth most likely to perceive their health as ‘good/very good’ out of 37 OECD countries. New Zealanders were most likely to perceive their health as ‘good/very good’ (88.4%, 2022), followed by those living in Canada (88.3%, 2021), the United States (86.4%, 2021) and Australia (85%, 2022). Those living in Japan (36.6%, 2019) and Lithuania (48.1%, 2022) were least likely to rate their health as ‘good/very good’. The OECD average was 68.5% (‘good/very good’).

Long-term care

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• The number of beds in Australia’s residential long-term care facilities per 1,000 population aged 65 and over (47.6 per 1,000 in 2021) ranked 11^th highest, out of the 32 OECD countries with available data. This was higher than the OECD average of 42.1 per 1,000.
• Australia had 7.3 formal long-term care workers per 100 population aged 65 and over in 2020 eighth highest out of the 24 OECD countries providing data. The OECD average was 5.7 per 100 population and Sweden (2021) and Norway (2022) had the highest, at 11.7 formal long-term care workers per 100 population.
• Australia had the third highest proportion (5.6% in 2021) of long-term care recipients in institutions (other than hospitals) for the population aged 65 and over, out of the 29 OECD countries with available data. The OECD average was 3.6%. Lithuania had the highest with 10.3% (2021).

It should be noted that definitions of long-term care vary between countries and this may impact the ranking of Australia compared with other OECD countries (OECD 2023). Additionally, the OECD definition is not consistent with Australia’s own reporting of aged care measures.

Health risk factors

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Australia was above the OECD average for litres per person of pure alcohol consumed by people aged 15 and over, at 10.1 litres per capita (in 2019) compared with the OECD average of 8.6 litres per capita. The highest amount of alcohol consumed of the 38 countries with data available was in Latvia (12.2 litres per capita, 2021), while the lowest was in Türkiye (1.4 litres per capita, 2021).
• Australia had the 10^th highest proportion of people aged 15 and over who are living with overweight or obesity (64% in 2022), out of the 21 countries that reported measured height and weight data. This was higher than the OECD average of 59.4%. Chile had the highest at 74.2% (2016).
• Australia had the fifth lowest proportion of daily smokers among people aged 15 and over (8.5% in 2022) for all 38 OECD countries, with Türkiye ranking highest at 28% (2019), and Iceland with the lowest at 6.2% (2022). The OECD average was 15.7%.
• Australia had the fifth highest proportion of regular users (at least monthly) of vaping products (also known as e-cigarettes) among people aged 15 and over (5.7% in 2022) of the 33 OECD countries with data on use of vaping products. Estonia ranked highest at 10.4% (2022) and Austria the lowest at 0.7% (2019). The OECD average was 3.4%.

Pharmaceutical market

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Total pharmaceutical sales per capita ($US purchasing power parity) were highest in Belgium, at $US1,086 (2022), of 31 OECD countries with data available. Australia’s pharmaceutical sales were equivalent to $US472 per capita (2021), lower than the OECD average ($US595 per capita).

It should be noted that Australian data only relate to medicines dispensed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and do not account for medicines dispensed in hospitals or any over-the-counter or private sales.

Remuneration of health professionals

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Self-employed general practitioners in Australia had the second lowest annual income among 15 OECD countries, at around $US 98,789 (adjusted for purchasing power parity) in 2021. This was lower than the OECD average of $US 151,183. The highest was Germany with $US 278,927 (2021), and the lowest was Israel with $US 94,522 (2021).
• Salaried hospital nurses in Australia earned the fifth highest annual income among 36 OECD countries, at around $US 70,569 (adjusted for purchasing power parity), in 2020. The highest was $US 111,135 in Luxembourg (2022), and the lowest in Lithuania ($US 23,940 in 2018). The OECD average was $US 53,309.
• For self-employed specialists, the annual income in Australia was fourth lowest among 11 OECD countries, estimated at around $US 217,319 per year (adjusted for purchasing power parity) in 2021. The highest was Luxembourg ($US 370,728 in 2015) and lowest was Israel ($US 164,441 in 2021).

It should be noted that average salaries for healthcare professionals are converted to USD Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for private consumption to bring them in line with average earnings calculations across the OECD (see glossary). Average salaries derived from the OECD Health Statistics 2023 (as is presented above) should not be compared with data from previous versions.

Health insurance

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data):

• Australia was among 22 OECD countries (of all 38 OECD countries) in which 100% of the total population is covered by government or social health insurance for health care. The United States was lowest at 38.4% (2021), with the OECD average being 96.1%.
• Across 38 OECD countries, the proportion of the total population covered by private health insurance (the OECD refers to this as voluntary health insurance, which may be primary or in addition to government/compulsory coverage – duplicate, complementary or supplementary) was highest in Belgium, at 97.5% (2021). The proportion of the population covered by private health insurance in Australia was 54.9% (2022), ninth highest of 31 OECD countries and above the OECD average (34.8%).
• Australia was among 22 OECD countries (of all 38 OECD countries) in which 100% of the population were covered by public or primary private health insurance. Sixteen did not have 100% coverage with Mexico ranked lowest for this indicator (72.4% of its population covered by public or private health insurance in 2020). The OECD average was 98%.

Waiting times for elective surgery

In 2022 (or based on the latest year of data), the median waiting times in Australia from specialist assessment to treatment differed from the OECD averages, with some procedures having shorter median wait times than the average, and others longer. These included:

• coronary bypass (19 days in 2021), seventh highest out of 15 countries that supplied data and below the OECD average of 27 days.
• hip replacement (153 days in 2021), fifth highest out of 17 countries that supplied data and below the OECD average of 165 days.
• hysterectomy (74 days in 2021), fifth highest out of 14 countries that supplied data and above the OECD average of 63 days.

Data for Australia relate to 2020–21 so comparisons should be interpreted with caution as these data may be impacted by restrictions in healthcare activities that were introduced to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19. For more information, see Admitted patient activity.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on international comparisons of health data, see:

• Measures of welfare and wellbeing for Australia and similar countries
• A working guide to international comparisons of health
• OECD Data Explorer (formerly OECD.Stat)
• OECD Data