Emergency department presentations

An emergency department (ED) presentation occurs following the arrival of the patient at the ED and commences at the point of being registered or triaged. Triage is the process during which a health professional assesses the urgency of the person’s care needs, and assigns one of five urgency categories to the health record.

Explore the data

Explore the number of presentations to Australia’s public hospital EDs in 2024–25 and for recent years in the data visualisation below.

Nationally, in 2024–25:

• there were 9.1 million presentations to emergency departments in public hospitals across Australia – a rate of 328 per 1,000 population
• most ED presentations were to Public acute group A hospitals (37%), followed by Principal referral and women’s and children’s hospitals (33%).

Emergency department presentations have increased over the last five years, from 8.8 million in 2020–21 to 9.1 million in 2024–25. The number of ED presentations during 2020–21 was impacted by disruptions to health services and social impacts related to COVID-19.

Age and sex

• In 2024–25, although males overall accounted for 49% of all ED presentations and females accounted for 51%, this was not the case for all age groups of males and females:
  • males accounted for the majority of ED presentations among patients aged under 15 (56%)
  • females accounted for the majority of ED presentations among patients aged 15 to 44 (55%) and those aged 85 years and over (56%).
• For both males and females, the highest rates of ED presentations per 1,000 population were for patients aged 85 and over – 915 presentations per 1,000 population for males, and 782 per 1,000 population for females.
• The second highest ED presentation rates for both males and females were seen in patients aged 4 and under – 646 per 1,000 population for males and 535 per 1,000 population for females. 
• While ED presentation rates were highest in the youngest and oldest age groups, 45% of all ED presentations were for people aged between 25 and 64.

Indigenous status

• Overall, 9.3% of ED presentations were for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people.
• The ED presentation rate was 903 per 1,000 population for First Nations people and 335 per 1,000 population for Other Australians. Across all age groups, First Nations people had higher presentation rates per 1,000 population than Other Australians.

Remoteness area of usual residence

• People living in Major cities accounted for 61% of ED presentations – 281 presentations per 1,000 people living in these areas.
• People living in Remote and Very remote areas accounted for only 3.6% of presentations. However, people living in these remoteness areas had the highest rate of ED presentations – 664 per 1,000 people in Remote areas and 686 per 1,000 people in Very remote areas.

Socioeconomic area of usual residence

• People living in the lowest socioeconomic (most disadvantaged) areas were most likely to visit an ED, accounting for 24% of ED presentations (428 presentations per 1,000 people). This was followed by people who lived in areas classified as being in the second lowest socioeconomic position (23% of ED presentations) – who presented at a rate of 398 presentations per 1,000 people.
• People living in the highest socioeconomic (least disadvantaged) areas were least likely to visit an ED. They accounted for 13% of all ED presentations and had a presentation rate of 221 presentations per 1,000 people.