Report on Government Services 2026

PART E: RELEASED ON 5 FEBRUARY 2026

In Australia, the health sector consists of four main services.

Detailed information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of service provision and the achievement of outcomes for the primary and community health, ambulance services, public hospitals, and mental health services is contained in the service-specific sections.

Flows in the sector

Health services in Australia are delivered by a variety of government and non‑government providers in a range of service settings that do not have a clearly defined path (figure E.1).

Intersection of ambulance services and public hospital emergency departments

The intersection of ambulance services and public hospital emergency departments (EDs) is a vital component of the healthcare system, facilitating patients receiving timely and effective emergency care. Efficient ambulance-to-ED transfers ensures timely treatment, prevents complications, and maintains emergency service capacity (Dawson et al. 2022).

Delays in transfers may disrupt patient care and limit ambulance and ED response capabilities, increasing strain on the health system (Mengyu et al. 2019). Delays may result from hospital overcrowding, partly a consequence of increasing presentations to EDs (AIHW 2025a; Crawford et al. 2014). Long-stay patients awaiting discharge can further reduce hospital capacity and delay admissions from the ED (IFEM 2020). Limited aged care and disability support services, along with staff and resource shortages may compound the issue (Kruk 2023; Queensland Health 2024).

Governments are working to minimise patient transfer delays to provide immediate medical care for lower acuity patients and divert unnecessary presentations from EDs (DHDA 2023; Savira et al. 2025). For example:

• Medicare Urgent Care Clinics aim to ease the pressure on hospitals and give patients more options to see a health care professional when they have an urgent, but not life threatening, need for care.
• 'Hospital in the Home’ programs which provide hospital-level care at home also aim to increase availability of hospital beds by reducing demand (Montalto et al. 2020).
• Virtual Emergency Department care provides urgent medical care remotely, particularly for conditions that are not life-threatening. These services allow patients to connect with emergency-trained health professionals via telehealth, potentially avoiding the need to visit a physical ED.

These measures diversify the care settings available to patients and provide an alternative to public hospital-based care, thus increasing hospital capacity and reducing patient transfer delays.

This overview provides selected population health insights across four themes:

• Babies born of low birthweight
• Selected potentially preventable diseases
• Life expectancy
• Mortality rates
• Health workforce

Babies born of low birthweight

Nationally in 2023, 5.2% of babies born in Australia were of low birthweight (figure E.2). Around 10% of babies born to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers were of low birthweight (table EA.2).

Further information on the historical and ongoing context for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on the Closing the Gap Information Repository website – Target 2.

Selected potentially preventable diseases

Selected potentially preventable diseases are diseases that could potentially have been prevented through the provision of health interventions and early disease management. Diseases covered in this report include selected cancers, heart attacks and type 2 diabetes.

• Nationally in 2022, the age standardised rate of new cases of selected cancers was highest for female breast cancer (126.4 per 100,000 females), followed by melanoma, bowel cancer and lung cancer (50.2, 45.1 and 40.7 per 100,000 people, respectively) and lowest for cervical cancer (6.8 per 100,000 females) (table EA.3). Data by remoteness area and Indigenous status is reported in tables EA.4 and EA.5.
• Nationally in 2023, the age standardised rate of heart attacks (acute coronary events) was 261.9 cases per 100,000 people aged 25 years or over (table EA.6). The national rate has decreased each year over the 10 years included in this report. The rate for females is more than half the rate for males (table EA.7).
• Nationally in 2022, an estimated 4.5% of adults had diabetes (table EA.8). Nationally in 2022–24, an estimated 15.5% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults had diabetes (ABS 2025).

Life expectancy

Historically, life expectancy has risen steadily over time but has decreased in recent years. In 2022–24, life expectancy at birth was 81.1 years for males and 85.1 years for females – the same as 2021–23 (table EA.9). The life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is lower than that of other people, with a life expectancy at birth of 71.9 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males and 75.6 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females born between 2020–22 (table EA.10).

Further information on the historical and ongoing context for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on the Closing the Gap Information Repository website – Target 1.

Mortality rates

The national age standardised mortality rate was 507.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024 – down from 2023 (figure E.3). In line with life expectancy data, mortality rates are higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous people (table EA.12).

Child mortality

Mortality data is separately reported for children as follows:

• Registered perinatal deaths, comprising fetal deaths (stillbirths) and neonatal deaths (death of an infant within 28 days of birth)
• Registered infant deaths (children aged less than 1 year)
• Registered infant and child deaths (children aged 0–4 years).

Registered perinatal, infant and child deaths data are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Causes of Death collection, which is based on information from births, deaths, and marriage registrars. Further information on hospital recorded perinatal deaths is available from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Perinatal Mortality Data Collection (2025b).

Nationally in 2024:

• there were 10.0 registered perinatal deaths per 1,000 births (table EA.15), of which around 75.6% were fetal deaths and the remainder neonatal deaths (tables EA.13–14)
• the average infant mortality rate was 3.3 registered deaths per 1,000 live births (table EA.16). Over the past 10 years, the average infant mortality rate has ranged from 3.1 (2016 and 2018) to 3.3 (2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024) registered deaths per 1,000 live births.

The combined infant and child mortality rate (three-year average) has decreased over time from 80.7 deaths per 100,000 population in 2013–15 to 73.8 deaths per 100,000 population in 2022–24 (table EA.17).

Data by Indigenous status is available in tables EA.18–20. Further information on the historical and ongoing context for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on the Closing the Gap Information Repository website – Target 1.

Causes and prevention

The most common causes of death among all Australians in 2024 were neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory diseases (including heart disease, heart attack and stroke) (table EA.21). Data by Indigenous status is available in table EA.22.

There is potential to prevent some deaths through individualised care and/or to treat health conditions through existing primary or hospital care.

• Nationally, there were 99.1 potentially avoidable deaths per 100,000 people in 2024 – up on 2023 (98.6 per 100,000 people) (table EA.23).
• The rate of potentially avoidable deaths in 2020–24 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 309.0 per 100,000 people – the highest rate over the reported time series (since 2017–21) (table EA.24).

Data on key risk factors affecting population health outcomes (including overweight or obesity, smoking and risky alcohol consumption) are available in tables EA.26–29. Nationally in 2022:

• 33.7% of adults were overweight, while 31.1% were obese – down and up, respectively, since 2017-18. Additionally, 19.5% of children aged 5–17 years were overweight, while 8.3% were obese – up since 2017-18 (table EA.26).
• 10.7% of adults reported that they were current daily smokers, the lowest proportion recorded in the time series (since 2007-08) (table EA.27).
• 27.1% of adults exceeded the alcohol lifetime risk guidelines (as defined by the 2020 National Health and Medical Research Council [NHMRC] guidelines) (table EA.29). A time series of Australians who exceeded the 2009 NHMRC alcohol lifetime risk guidelines is available in table EA.28.

Data on key risk factors affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available in tables EA.30–33. Nationally in 2022-23, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over the age of 18:

• 71.5% reported being overweight or obese (table EA.30)
• 31.4% reported that they smoke daily, the lowest proportion recorded in the available time series (table EA.31)
• 36.3% reported long-term risky alcohol consumption under the 2020 NHMRC guidelines (table EA.33). A time series under the 2009 NHMRC alcohol lifetime risk guidelines is available in table EA.32.

Further information on the historical and ongoing context for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on the Closing the Gap Information Repository website – Target 1.

Health workforce

The healthcare workforce is essential to the functioning of the health system, providing care, supporting public health efforts, and ensuring operational continuity. Nationally in 2024, there were:

• 122,749 FTE medical practitioners, including 815 who identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, up 7% from 2023 (table EA.34).
• 372,821 FTE nurses and midwives, the eighth consecutive increase over an eight-year period (table EA.35)

Data for allied health professionals, dentists and allied dental workers is available in tables EA.36–38. 

A summary of the primary and community health, ambulance services, hospitals and mental health services performance indicator results are presented. Detailed information is in the service-specific sections.