Students enrolled in dental and oral health courses who have a rural background

KPI 24: Proportion of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses who have a rural background

Rural Australians have access to fewer dental practitioners than their city counterparts (COAG 2015; Bishop & Laverty 2015). This indicator is a measure of the proportion of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses who have a rural background, as this is known to be a key determinant in the likelihood of them pursuing a career in the rural workforce (COAG 2019).

In 2017, around 1 in 6 (17%) of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses had a rural background, which is a slight decrease from 1 in 5 (19%) in 2014.

It should be noted that this indicator was calculated taking into consideration only those students who were studying a dental and oral health course that would eventually qualify them to register with the Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency (AHPRA) as a dental practitioner.

Explore the data using the interactive below: 

KPI 24: Proportion of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses who have a rural background

This figure shows the proportion of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses who have a rural background, between 2014 and 2017. In 2017, 17% of students enrolled in dental and oral health courses had a rural background.

Data tables available for download.

More information about the dental workforce.

References

Bishop LM & Laverty MJ 2015. Filling the gap: disparities in oral health access and outcomes between metropolitan and remote and rural Australia. Canberra: Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.

COAG (Council of Australian Governments) Health Council 2015. Healthy mouths, healthy lives: Australia’s National Oral Health Plan 2015–2024. Adelaide: South Australian Dental Service.

COAG (Council of Australian Governments) Health Council 2019. Healthy mouths, healthy lives: Australia’s National Oral Health Plan 2015–2024. Performance monitoring report: baseline report 2017. Victoria: Dental Health Services Victoria.

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