National Dementia Action Plan indicators dashboard

The dementia care workforce is a broad term that refers to the varied professionals who formally care for people living with dementia spanning the community, disability, health and aged care sectors. The dementia care workforce includes a range of occupations and roles such as personal care workers, Aboriginal health workers, nurses, doctors, registered allied health professionals (for example, physiotherapists, occupational therapists), leisure and diversional therapists, administrators and ancillary staff, and first responders (for example, paramedics, firefighters, police officers).

The dementia care workforce needs to be skilled and appropriately trained in caring for people with cognitive impairment and requires specific skills such as complex case management. This is to ensure high-quality care is provided.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found that staff often lack skills and resources to appropriately care for people with dementia, and recommended implementing mandatory dementia care training for workers engaged in residential aged care and in care in the community (Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety 2021).

Dementia training by job role

In 2023, nurse practitioners were less likely to have completed dementia care training in the previous 12 months (26%) than personal care workers (32%), registered nurses (31%) and enrolled nurses (31%).

Personal care workers made up the majority (78%) of the direct aged care workforce in the Survey. There are currently no minimum standard qualifications required for entry-level roles (although many organisations require a vocational qualification), and no compulsory requirement for dementia training (Dementia Australia 2022; Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2025; Macdonald 2024).

Types of aged care services

In March 2023, the proportion of aged care workers who completed dementia care training in the previous 12 months varied across aged care service type (Figure 7.1):

• 30% of workers for Residential Aged Care services
• 39% of workers for Commonwealth Home Support Program services
• 33% of workers for Home Care Package Program services
• 8.8% of workers for Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) (the MPS Program provides funding for small rural and remote communities to offer flexible aged care services)
• 5.7% of workers for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFAC) services (these provide culturally appropriate aged care to older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, mainly in rural and remote areas).

Figure 7.1: Proportion of aged care workers who completed dementia care training in the previous 12 months, by aged care service type, 2023

These data come from the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey (2024).

Information was collected from in-scope active registered services which employed direct care staff (nurses, personal care workers or allied health staff) and had one or more eligible aged care clients during the reporting period (the first fortnightly pay period in March 2023). The overall Survey response rate was 47% (1,401 out of 3,000 invited services provided submissions).

For more detailed data, including the counts used to calculate proportions, see the Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey supplementary materials.

For more information, see the Technical notes and the Survey Data quality statement.

Age and gender

Of students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia in 2024:

• 75% were women
• 43% were aged less than 30 and 28% were aged 30–39 (Figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3: Number of students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia, by age and gender, 2024

First Nations people

Among students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia in 2024, 925 (2.5%) identified as First Nations people and 97% identified as non-Indigenous.

Language other than English spoken at home

Among students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia in 2024, 43% spoke a language other than English at home. 

Country of birth

In 2024, the most common countries of birth recorded for students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia were Australia (30%), Nepal (11%), Philippines (11%), India (9.2%), China (5.0%) and Bhutan (3.7%). This reflects the most common countries of birth for all Australians (ABS 2025) but differs from the most common non-English speaking countries of birth for people living with dementia, which are Italy, Greece, and China (AIHW 2025).

Remoteness area

In 2024, among students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia:

• 68% lived in Major cities
• 13% lived in Inner regional areas
• 5.5% lived in Outer regional areas
• 0.9% lived in Remote and very remote areas
• 13% had an offshore residence (where students are enrolled in Australia but have provided an overseas residential address). 

Socioeconomic area of residence

Students who completed a vocational training subject about dementia were more likely to live in lower socioeconomic areas than higher socioeconomic areas: 27% of students lived in the most disadvantaged areas (quintile 1) and 10% lived in the least disadvantaged areas (quintile 5).

Funding for vocational training

Almost half (45%) of the study places for vocational training courses that included subjects about dementia were funded by the government in 2024. The remaining study places were funded by domestic students (43%) and international fee-for-service students (12%).

These data come from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). 

The indicator is the number of students who had a result of ‘competency achieved / passed’ in the subject ‘Provide support to people living with dementia’ (CHCAGE011 and CHCAGE005).

Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5. Caution should be taken when using data to consider the number of students with a 'not known' response. Data are reported as 'not known' for several reasons, including information was not collected or invalid. Data exclude students with an offshore training delivery location.

Data for population groups are reported for the most recent year of data only and where data quality allows. The published population group data describe only students with known gender, age, remoteness, Indigenous status, language spoken at home, country of birth or socioeconomic area of residence.

For more detailed data, including the counts used to calculate proportions and counts of a ‘not known’ response, see the Supplementary data tables. Data and specifications from NCVER are publicly available through the DataBuilder.

For more information, see the Technical notes.

The population group data are currently only available for people who completed an online DTA course in 2024. Population group data are currently not available for people who completed a face-to-face course.

Age and gender

Of people who completed an online DTA course in 2024:

• the majority (82%) were women
• 43% were aged less than 35 and 52% were aged 35–64 (Figure 7.4).

Figure 7.4: Number of people who completed an online Dementia Training Australia course, by age group, 2024

Type of care setting

Of people who completed an online DTA course, 39% worked in a residential care setting and 16% worked in a community care setting. Other types of care setting included acute care, disability care and primary care.

Remoteness area

Of people who completed an online DTA course, 57% lived in Metropolitan areas (MM 1), 19% lived in Regional centres, Large or Medium rural towns (MM 2–4), and 24% lived in Small rural towns, Remote or Very remote communities (MM 5–7).

These data come from Dementia Training Australia (DTA). DTA is a consortium funded by the Australian Government to provide education and training on the care of people living with dementia, across Australia.

It is important to note that DTA is a major provider, but is not the only provider, of dementia-specific training. Data from other organisations are not currently available.

The indicator reports the number of occasions of dementia training completed through DTA in January–December 2024: if a person completed more than one course during a period, they would be counted more than once. 

The indicator is presented as a raw number because there are currently no suitable denominator data that represent the total number in the target population.

Data on breakdowns by different population groups are currently only available for people who completed an online DTA course in the period January–December 2024 (N=21,001), whereas the headline indicator includes people who completed any DTA course, both online and face-to-face. Data for population groups are reported only where data quality allows. This includes age, gender, type of workplace, and remoteness area. If a person completed more than one course during the reference period, they would be counted more than once in the data.

Remoteness classifications are based on postcode information using the Modified Monash Model (MMM).

For more detailed data, including the counts used to calculate proportions, see the Supplementary data tables.

For more information, see the Technical notes.

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2025) Australia’s population by country of birth, Jun 2024, ABS website, accessed 7 October 2025.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2025) Dementia in Australia, AIHW website, accessed 7 October 2025.

Dementia Australia (2022) Are aged care workers required to have dementia training? , Dementia Australia website, accessed 7 October 2025. 

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (2025) I want to work in aged care, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website, accessed 7 October 2025. 

Macdonald F (2024) Professionalising the aged care workforce: the case for worker registration and a mandatory qualification, The Australia Institute Centre for Future Work, accessed 7 October 2025.

Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (2021) Final report: care, dignity and respect, Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Australian Government, accessed 7 October 2025.