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released: 16 Oct 2009 author: AIHW media release

The supply of employed medical practitioners increased between 2003 and 2007, from 279 to 305 full-time equivalent practitioners per 100,000 population. This increase reflected a 20% rise in practitioner numbers. The gender balance continued to shift, with women making up 34% of practitioners in 2007 compared to 32% in 2003. The average hours worked by male practitioners declined from 47.5 to 45.9 hours, while hours worked by female practitioners remained steady at 37.6 hours.

ISSN 1327-4309; ISBN 978 1 74024 959 1; Cat. no. HWL 45; 72pp.; $25.00

printed copy

Full publication

Publication table of contents

  • Preliminary material
    • Title and verso pages
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgments
    • Abbreviations
    • Symbols and other usages
    • Summary
  • Body section
    1. Introduction
      1. Medical practitioners in Australia
      2. AIHW Medical Labour Force Survey
      3. Other sources of data on medical practitioners
      4. Additional information
    2. Registered medical practitioners
    3. Medical practitioners employed in medicine
      1. Age and sex
      2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical practitioners
      3. Field of medicine
      4. Country of first medical qualification
      5. Working hours
      6. Work setting and sector
    4. Supply of practitioners
      1. Overall supply
      2. Supply of clinicians
    5. Regional comparisons
      1. Remoteness Areas
      2. States and territories
  • End matter
    • Appendixes
      1. Explanatory notes on the AIHW Medical Labour Force Survey
        • Background
        • Method
        • Scope and coverage
        • Estimation procedures
        • Response rate
        • Treatment of multi-state registrations
        • Changes to 2007 survey
        • Data issues
      2. Medical practitioner registration numbers
        • Medical practitioner boards registration numbers
        • 'Area of need' medical practitioners
      3. Medicare data
        • General practitioner numbers
        • Comparison with AIHW Medical Labour Force Survey data
      4. National public hospital establishments data
      5. Additional information available from the AIHW website
        • Tables
        • Survey questionnaires
      6. Population estimates
    • Glossary
    • References
    • List of tables
    • List of figures

Notes and corrections

The current version of the publication is presented above.

Previous versions of files that have been updated or corrected are presented below.

  1. Report – The historic data in tables 6, 7, 12–21 and C.2 may be different to previously published data due to revision of the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated resident population data in 2009.
    All employed medical practitioner detailed tables – The historic data in tables 1.1 and 1.3 may be different to previously published data due to revision of the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated resident population data in 2009.
    Other detailed tables – Name of the survey has been included in the explanatory notes and table of contents. (15 April 2010)
  2. In Table 11 on page 20 the public sector number and average weekly total hours for the Community health centre work setting was incorrect due to a typographical error. The new figures are 610 in number and 16.1 average weekly total hour. (6 Sep 2011) 

Recommended citation

AIHW 2009. Medical labour force 2007. National health labour force series no. 44. Cat. no. HWL 45. Canberra: AIHW.