Chronic kidney disease: Australian facts

The Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) Registry is a clinical quality registry that collects and produces a wide range of statistics on the outcomes of treatment of people with kidney failure. The registry collects information to monitor dialysis and transplant treatments from all kidney units in Australia and New Zealand. It operates under the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

The ANZDATA Registry includes information on the status of treatment with kidney replacement therapy (KRT), including if a person has recovered their kidney function, people who had a transplant overseas, people who were lost to follow-up, and people who had a kidney transplant that failed and who died.

Data on the incidence and prevalence and treatment of kidney failure with KRT presented in this report excluded people who:

• recovered their kidney function
• were lost to follow-up
• died.

This is different from exclusion criteria used for these analyses in previous AIHW reports, which also excluded people who had a kidney transplant overseas and whose graft function failed. These people are now included because, regardless of where they received a transplant or whether their transplant is functioning, they are still receiving follow-up care or KRT in Australia.

Information about the data quality of the ANZDATA Registry can be found in the ANZDATA 48th Annual Report 2024

The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) is a national survey that was conducted by the International Diabetes Institute (now Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute). It collected national measurements of chronic kidney disease (CKD) biomarkers: serum creatinine and albuminuria for an adult population aged 25 and over (11,700 people). Of the eligible households, 70% responded to the biomedical survey, and 37% of eligible respondents got tested (Dunstan et al. 2002). Standardised creatinine results from the survey participants were supplied by the research team to conduct this analysis on comparable estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) measures.

For more information on AusDiab, see About AusDiab.

The National Health Measures Survey (NHMS) 2022–24 collected biomedical samples from respondents who participated in the National Health Survey 2022 or the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2023. Twenty eight percent of the survey participants volunteered to get the biomedical tests, which was approximately 7,500 people.  

Urine samples were collected from respondents aged 5 and over, and blood samples from respondents aged 12 and over. The NHMS aimed to provide information on chronic disease and nutrient biomarker levels and health risk factors.

The National Health Measures Survey (NHMS) 2011–13, was the first Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) biomedical collection from participants in the National Health Measures Survey. It involved the collection of a range of blood and urine tests from over 11,000 participants across Australia, which were then tested for various chronic disease and nutrient biomarkers.

Urine samples were collected from respondents aged 5 and over, and blood samples from respondents aged 12 and over 36% of the survey participants volunteered to get the biomedical tests, covering 85% of the sampled households. 

CKD biomarkers collected were used to derive the eGFR measure from the CKD-epi formula and the albumin:creatinine ratio (Johnson et al. 2012).

For more information, see:

• National Health Measures Survey: Information on biomarkers of chronic disease and nutrition including selected health risk factors
• National Health Measures Survey methodology
• Australian Health Survey: biomedical results for chronic diseases
• Australian Health Survey: biomedical results for chronic diseases methodology.

The 2022–24 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey (NATSIHMS) collected biomedical samples from respondents who participated in either the 2022–23 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) or the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey. Around 2,500 participants provided biomedical samples, which was a response rate of 26%.  

The NATSIHMS measured specific biomarkers for chronic disease and nutrition status, derived from tests on blood and urine samples from volunteering participants. 

Further information can be found on the ABS website.

The National Health Survey (NHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to obtain national information on the health status of Australians, their use of health services and facilities, and health-related aspects of their lifestyle. The most recent NHS was conducted in 2022.

The NHS collects self-reported data on whether a respondent had one or more long-term health conditions; that is, conditions that lasted, or were expected to last, 6 months or more. 

When interpreting data from the 2022 NHS, some limitations need to be considered:

• Data that are self-reported rely on respondents knowing and providing accurate information.
• The survey does not include information from people living in nursing homes or otherwise institutionalised.
• Residents of Very remote areas and discrete First Nations communities were excluded from the survey. This is unlikely to affect national estimates but will have an impact on prevalence estimates by remoteness.

Further information can be found in National Health Survey, 2022.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to obtain national information on the health of First Nations people, their use of health services and health-related aspects of their lifestyle. The most recent NATSIHS was conducted in 2022–23.

The NATSIHS collects information from First Nations people of all ages in non-remote and remote areas of Australia, including discrete First Nations communities.

Between 2016 and 2021, based on Census data, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population increased by 25.2% or 163,557 people. Due to the large increase in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, care should be taken when comparing estimates from the 2022–23 NATSIHS with previous surveys. For more information see the Methodology. 

Further information about the survey can be found in National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey.

The AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) is a compilation of episode level records from admitted patient morbidity data collection systems in Australian hospitals.

Reporting to the NHMD occurs at the end of a person’s admitted episode of care (separation or hospitalisation) and is based on the clinical documentation for that hospitalisation.

The NHMD is based on the Admitted Patient Care National Minimum Data Set (APC NMDS). It records information on admitted patient care (hospitalisations) in essentially all hospitals in Australia, and includes demographic, administrative and length-of-stay data, as well as data on the diagnoses of patients, the procedures they underwent in hospital and external causes of injury and poisoning.

The hospital separations data do not include episodes of non-admitted patient care given in outpatient clinics or emergency departments. Patients in these settings may be admitted later, with the care provided to them as admitted patients being included in the NHMD.

The following care types were excluded when undertaking the analysis:

• 7.3 (newborn – unqualified days only)
• 9 (organ procurement – posthumous)
• 10 (hospital boarder).

For more information on the NHMD, see Admitted patient care NMDS 2023–24

The AIHW National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD) is a compilation of episode-level records (including waiting times for care) for non-admitted patients who are registered for care in emergency departments in selected public hospitals. The database captures information only for physical presentations to emergency departments and does not include advice provided via telehealth or videoconferencing.

Patients being treated in emergency departments may be later admitted, including admission in the emergency department, another hospital ward or to hospital‑in-the-home. For this reason, there is an overlap in the scope of the NNAPEDCD, the NMDS and the APC NMDS.

Principal diagnoses for episodes of care in the NNAPEDCD are coded according to the Emergency Department ICD-10-AM Principal Diagnosis Shortlist.

For more information on the NNAPEDCD, see Non-admitted patient emergency department care NMDS 2024–25

The AIHW National Mortality Database (NMD) comprises information about causes of death and other characteristics of the person, such as sex, age at death, area of usual residence and Indigenous status. The cause of death data are provided to the AIHW by the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System (managed by the Victorian Department of Justice); they include cause of death coded by the ABS. The data are maintained by the AIHW in the NMD.

In this report, deaths registered in 2021 and earlier are based on the final version of cause of death data; deaths registered in 2022 are based on the revised version; and deaths registered in 2023 and 2024 are based on the preliminary version. Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS.

For data by Indigenous status, counts of death are reported for 8 jurisdictions combined – New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Death rates are reported for 6 jurisdictions combined – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These jurisdictions are considered to have adequate levels of First Nations identification in mortality data.

This report adjusts for Victorian additional death registrations of deaths that were registered in Victoria in 2017 and 2018 but were not provided to the ABS for compilation until 2019. As a result, the number deaths reported for 2017 to 2019 may differ from previously reported numbers. For more detail, see the Technical note: Victorian additional registrations and time series adjustments in Causes of death, Australian methodology

The NMD includes information on people’s area of usual residence prior to death. For 2024, this was their SA2 based on the 2021 ASGS. This location information from the National Mortality Database, along with IRSD values based on the ABS 2021 Census of Population and Housing, and estimated resident populations for 2024, have been used to approximate statistics for 2024 ASGS Remoteness Areas and 2024 IRSD SEIFA quintiles.

• ABS quality declaration summary for Deaths, Australia methodology
• ABS quality declaration summary for Causes of death, Australia methodology.

For more information, see National Mortality Database (NMD).

The Australian Burden of Disease Study undertaken by the AIHW provides information on the burden of disease for the Australian population. Burden of disease analysis measures the impact of fatal (or years of life lost, YLL) and non-fatal burden (years lived with disability, YLD), with the sum of non-fatal and fatal burden equating the total burden (disability-adjusted life year, DALY).

The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024 includes national estimates for 220 diseases and injuries in 2024 based on projections using historical trends in data. Projected estimates were done for the first time in ABDS 2022, and have been updated annually since. Burden estimates may be revised in the future as more data becomes available.

ABDS 2024 also includes updated estimates of attributable burden due to selected modifiable risk factors, which were last updated as part of ABDS 2018.

Estimates of burden of disease for First Nations people Estimates of the burden of disease for First Nations people come from the 2022 First Nations Burden of Disease Study. Estimates are available for 2003, 2011, 2018 and 2022.

For more information, see Burden of disease and First Nations Burden of Disease.

The AIHW Disease Expenditure Database provides a broad picture of the use of health system resources classified by disease groups and conditions.

It contains estimates of expenditure by Australian Burden of Disease Study condition, age group and sex for public and private hospital admitted patients, public hospital emergency department, and public hospital outpatient services, primary health care, referred medical services and prescription pharmaceuticals.

It does not allocate all expenditure on health goods and services by disease – for example, neither administration expenditure nor capital expenditure can be meaningfully attributed to any particular condition due to their nature.

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

The National Health Data Hub (NHDH) is a national, longitudinal, person-focussed, de-identified data linkage system, developed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). It comprises enduring health and welfare data from state and territory, Commonwealth and non-government data sources. The NHDH brings together hospital data on admitted patient care services (APC), emergency department (ED) services and outpatient services for most states and territories. It also includes various data sets such as pharmaceuticals, health utilisation, aged care, deaths, disability, intensive care and Australian immunisation information.

Analysis in this report made use of unit record-level data on admitted patient episodes from the National Hospital Morbidity Database to identify hospital separation to person ratios for selected conditions. 

The NHDH includes admitted patient care data from all public hospitals in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, covering the period from July 2010 to June 2024. As private hospital data are inconsistently captured across states and territories in the NHDH, these data were not included in the analysis presented in this report. The NHDH does not current include hospitalisation data from Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Therefore, results may not be generalisable to the Australian population. 

Dunstan DW, Zimmet PZ, Welborn TA, Cameron AJ, Shaw J, de Courten M, Jolley D and McCarty DJ (2002) ‘The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) – methods and response rates’, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 57:119–29, doi: 10.1016/s0168-8227(02)00025-6.

Johnson DW, Jones GRD, Mathew TH, Ludlow MJ, Doogue MP, Jose MD, Langham RG, Lawton PD, McTaggart SJ, Peake MJ, Polkinghome K and Usherwood T (Australasian Creatinine Consensus Working Group) (2012) Chronic kidney disease and automatic reporting of estimated glomerular filtration rate: new developments and revised recommendations, Medical Journal of Australia, 197(4):222–223, doi: 10.5694/mja11.11329.