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.

Latest findings

State and territory expenditure grew 9.8% in real terms in 2016–17 From 1989–90 to 2013–14 health expenditure in Australia grew from $50 billion to $155 billion, in real terms Per person expenditure grew 3.0% to $7,411 between 2015–16 and 2016–17 Total health expenditure in 2016–17 was $180.7 billion Individuals spent $1,222 on average per person Over the period, growth in health expenditure did not exceed growth in government revenues, or wealth of individuals Total government spending on health grew by 6.8% in real terms, above the average growth of the previous 5 years Over the 25 years, health expenditure grew at a faster rate than that of the broader economy $69.1 billion was spent on hospitals—a real increase of $1.8 billion from 2015–16 Over the 25-year period, health expenditure grew faster than inflation, the population and population ageing

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Highlights

Dynamic dataHealth expenditure Australia 2016–17
$124 billionof funding for health spending in 2016–17 was contributed by governments and $56.5 billion by non-government sources
$69 billionwas spent on hospitals in 2016–17 and $62 billion was spent on primary health care
$137 billionwas spent by governments on welfare in 2012–13—this compares with $108 billion in 2003–04
$180.7 billionwas spent on health in 2016–17 or 10% of gross domestic product (GDP)—up from $115 billion or 8.5% of GDP in 2006–07
4.7%growth in annual health spending between 2015–16 and 2016–17 was above the 10-year average of 4.6%
2.6%average annual growth in welfare spending was recorded between 2003–04 and 2012–13