Health expenditure is an Australia's health topic

This page provides a high-level overview of the key messages presented in Health expenditure Australia 2023–24, Health system spending on disease and injury in Australia 2023–24 as well as international comparisons of health expenditure.

Health expenditure is money spent on health goods and services. It includes money spent by all levels of governments as well as non-government entities such as individuals, private health insurers, and injury compensation insurers.

Health spending on goods and services includes:

  • hospitals (both public and private)
  • primary health care (unreferred medical services, dental services, other health practitioners, community health, public health, and medications)
  • referred medical services
  • other services (patient transport services, aids and appliances, and administration)
  • research
  • capital expenditure.

Health spending in 2023–24

In 2023–24, Australia spent an estimated $270.5 billion on health goods and services– an average of approximately $10,037 per person. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), health spending increased by 1.1%, or $2.8 billion more than spending from 2022–23. 

In 2023–24, health spending accounted for 10.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Australia, approximately 0.2 percentage points higher than in 2022–23. 

For more information, see Overview.

Spending by source of funds

In 2023–24, governments funded $188.2 billion of the total health expenditure (69.6%) with non-government sources funding the remaining $82.3 billion (30.4%).

Of the total government health funding in 2023–24, the Australian Government contributed $106.2 billion (a 1.0% decrease in real terms compared with the previous year) and State and territory governments contributed $82.0 billion (1.1% increase).

In 2023–24, non-government sources spent $ 82.3 billion on health, a  3.7% increase in real terms compared with the previous year. Non-government health spending includes contributions from:

  • individuals of $ 44.0 billion, just over half ( 53.5%) of non-government health spending 
  • private health insurance providers $21.0 billion ( 25.5%) 
  • other non-government sources $17.3 billion (21.0%). 

Health spending by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) on disability-related health services in the health system is not currently included in the estimates on this page. According to the NDIA, in 2023–24, $4.8 billion in National Disability Insurance Scheme funding could be attributed to health-related services (NDIA 2025). 

For more information, see Spending trends by sources.

Areas of health spending

For 2023–24, there were 2 main changes in recurrent spending: 

  • Hospital spending reached $113.8 billion, a $1.3 billion (1.2%) increase from 2022–23 in real terms. This growth was mainly associated with an increase in hospitalisations for admitted patients.
  • Primary health care was $89.1 billion, a $0.4 billion (0.5%) decrease from 2022–23 in real terms. This reduction was largely due to lower government expenditure on public health during the post-pandemic period.

For more information, see Spending trends by areas of spending.

Health system spending on disease and injury

In 2023–24, an estimated $180.4 billion was spent on disease and injury in Australia. The disease groups with the highest spending were cancer ($19.7 billion), followed by cardiovascular diseases ($16.9 billion), and musculoskeletal disorders ($16.3 billion).

Spending on cancer more than doubled from $9.1 billion in 2013–14 to $19.7 billion in 2023–24 and has been the highest ranked disease group in terms of spending since 2017–18.

Of the $180.4 billion spent on disease and injury in Australia in 2023–24, spending on chronic conditions (often referred to as long-term health conditions), accounted for around $98 billion, over half (54%) of all disease spending in 2023–24. Two of the top three conditions for spending in 2023–24 were for chronic conditions – osteoarthritis ($4.8 billion) and back pain problems ($4.0 billion). The condition with the highest spending in 2023–24 was injuries from falls ($5.3 billion). 

Over the period 2013–14 to 2023–24, total spending by disease and injury grew $78.1 billion (in current prices), of which $47.1 billion (60%) was due to an increase in spending for chronic conditions.   

For more information, see Health system spending on disease and injury in Australia 2023–24.

Australia’s health spending ranking across OECD countries

Using the OECD-SHA, Australia’s health spending (excluding spending by providers of residential aged care facilities) to GDP ratios were 8.7% in 2013 (Figure 1). Then, Australia’s residential aged care expenditure was reported in OECD Health expenditure in the period 2014 to 2023. As a result, these ratios of health spending to GDP shifted up between 9.8% and 10.1% from 2014 to 2018 before increasing to 10.8% in 2020 and 10.6% in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In 2022, the ratio returned to the pre-pandemic level at 10.0%.

In 2023, Australia’s health spending to GDP ratio ranked 13th highest with a ratio of 10.4% compared with the OECD median of 9.3%, among 38 OECD member countries.

Figure 1: Health spending to GDP ratios and Australia’s rank among OECD countries, current prices and local currencies, 2013 to 2023

The line chart shows that Australia’s health spending to GDP ratio from 2013 to 2023 in two cases: health spending including or excluding residential aged care expenditure. The ratios increased steadily over the period 2013 to 2023. 

The bar chart shows that in 2023 health spending as a proportion of GDP was highest in the United States at 16.7% and Germany at 11.7%. The lowest ratio was in Mexico at 5.7% and Turkey at 4.3%. Australia’s health spending as a proportion of GDP of 10.2% was the 13th highest among OECD countries and 0.9 percentage point higher than the OECD median. 

The line chart shows that Australia’s health spending to GDP ratio from 2013 to 2023 in two cases: health spending including or excluding residential aged care expenditure. The ratios increased steadily over the period 2013 to 2023. The bar chart shows that in 2023 health spending as a proportion of GDP was highest in the United States at 16.7% and Germany at 11.7%. The lowest ratio was in Mexico at 5.7% and Turkey at 4.3%. Australia’s health spending as a proportion of GDP of 10.2% was the 13th highest among OECD countries and 0.9 percentage point higher than the OECD median. 

Notes 

  1. Australia’s health spending figure in 2023 was preliminary estimated by AIHW. Therefore, the figure may be different with the one published by OECD. 
  2. Due to difference in the scope and methodology, Australia’s health spending figures in international comparisons are not comparable with data in the Health expenditure Australia report.
  3. Due to the data revisions from some OECD member countries, these ratios and rankings for OECD countries are not comparable to the previous reports.
  4. Due to difference in reference year and methodology, these ratios are not comparable to the Australia’s health expenditure: an international comparison (AIHW 2019)

Sources: AIHW Health Expenditure Database; OECD 2025.

Key data gaps and data improvement activities

Data gaps

The methods used in estimating health expenditure are overseen by the Health Expenditure Advisory Committee (HEAC). The HEAC includes subject matter experts, and representatives from the Australian Government and all state and territory governments. The AIHW has worked with the HEAC over many years to develop approaches to maximise the completeness and accuracy of the estimates over time. For more information, see Data Quality Statement.

Data development

The health expenditure report aims to support a long-term, whole-of-system understanding of health spending nationally and over time. This report is unique in Australia, and it varies from other health system reporting in scope, degree of stability over time and classification systems used. Other systems tend to focus on specific funding programs, jurisdictions or time periods. The long-term holistic approach requires developing methods to appropriately allocate spending figures from multiple and often overlapping data sources. For more information, see Overview of data sources and methodology.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on health expenditure, see:

For more on this topic, see Health & welfare expenditure.