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

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-year period, health expenditure grew faster than inflation, the population and population ageing State and territory expenditure grew 9.8% in real terms in 2016–17 Total health expenditure in 2016–17 was $180.7 billion Per person expenditure grew 3.0% to $7,411 between 2015–16 and 2016–17 From 1989–90 to 2013–14 health expenditure in Australia grew from $50 billion to $155 billion, in real terms $69.1 billion was spent on hospitals—a real increase of $1.8 billion from 2015–16 Over the 25 years, health expenditure grew at a faster rate than that of the broader economy Individuals spent $1,222 on average per person

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