Data sources
This page outlines the data sources used for the Diabetes: Australian facts report.
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 diabetes.
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 currently include hospitalisation data from Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Therefore, results may not be generalisable to the Australian population.
For more information, see National Health Data Hub.
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. Data from measured HbA1c test results and self-reported diabetes diagnosis and medication use were used to estimate the prevalence of diabetes in Australian adults, including known and newly diagnosed diabetes.
A respondent had diabetes if they had either known diabetes or newly diagnosed diabetes. A respondent had known diabetes if they self-reported a diabetes diagnosis and self-reported taking medications to treat diabetes or if they self-reported a diabetes diagnosis and had a blood test result indicating diabetes. A respondent had newly diagnosed diabetes if they did not self-report a diabetes diagnosis and had a blood test result indicating diabetes (≥6.5% or ≥48 mmol/mol).
A respondent who self-reported a diabetes diagnosis but did not self-report taking medications for diabetes and had a blood test result below the diabetes cut-offs (for example they were managing the condition with diet and lifestyle interventions) were classified as not having diabetes.
For more information, see:
The National Health Survey (NHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 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. Data from the 2022 NHS was used as the latest available data for time series.
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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were excluded from the survey. This is unlikely to affect national estimates but will impact prevalence estimates by remoteness.
For more information see:
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.
For more information see:
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) is conducted by the ABS to obtain national information on the health of Indigenous Australians, 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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of all ages in non-remote and remote areas of Australia, including discrete Indigenous communities.
Between 2016 and 2021, based on Census data, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population increased by 25% 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 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, public hospital outpatient services, primary health care (general practitioner services, dental expenditure, allied health and other services, pharmaceutical benefits scheme) and referred medical services (medical imaging, pathology and specialist services).
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 and details on the methods used, see:
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 (years of life lost, YLL) and non-fatal burden (years lived with disability, YLD), with the sum of non-fatal and fatal burden equating to 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 become available.
The 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 the burden of disease for First Nations people come from the 2022 First Nations Burden of Disease Study. Estimates of the burden of disease for First Nations people are available for 2011, 2018 and 2022.
General methods for estimation of burden of disease can be found in Australian Burden of Disease Study: methods and supplementary material 2018. This includes descriptions for years of life lost (YLL), years lived with disability (YLD), disability-adjusted life years (DALY) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE).
For further information see Burden of disease.
The Australian Diabetes Clinical Quality Registry (ADCQR), a successor of the Australian National Diabetes Audit (ANDA), is a national quality improvement initiative dedicated to promoting best practice and high-quality diabetes care.
The ADCQR collects clinical indicators collected as part of standard care and include diagnoses, clinical and laboratory results, management methods/therapy and diabetes-related complications and comorbidities. Patient reported outcome measures are also collected capturing information on self-management and health service use.
The ADCQR annual report provides data on the current state of diabetes care and outcomes from participating diabetes health services across Australia, including primary, secondary and tertiary health settings.
For more information, see the Australian Diabetes Clinical Quality Registry.
The National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) is an initiative of the Australian Government administered by Diabetes Australia. People with a diagnosis of diabetes by a health professional can register with the scheme. Once registered, they can access diabetes self-management information, services, and subsidised products – such as pens and needles to administer insulin, blood glucose test strips, insulin pump consumables, and continuous glucose monitoring products.
The Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group (APEG) is a professional body that represents health professionals involved in managing and researching disorders of the endocrine system, including diabetes in children and adolescents. The APEG maintains clinic-based state and territory diabetes registers of children.
The AIHW holds information derived through the linkage of the NDSS and APEG datasets on the broader population of people living with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and other less common forms of diabetes. Unlike the NDR, this broader dataset contains information about all people with diabetes and not just those taking insulin for their diabetes. The data contained in this linked dataset includes people registered with the NDSS from 1987 onwards and people registered with APEG from 1999 onwards. These data were used to report on incidence and prevalence for people living with diabetes, including type 1, type 2 and other diabetes.
The NDSS registration forms and database have changed over time. Between 2 December 2002 and 28 February 2003, the clinical terminology used to describe diabetes types was updated from juvenile-onset diabetes, Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) and Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM), to type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Prior to this, people registering with the NDSS with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes may have been incorrectly recorded as type 1 so that their insulin using needs could be met. This occurred because the NDSS registration form did not have an option for insulin-treated type 2 diabetes, reflecting diabetes classification at that time. All registrants that were classified as IDDM were reclassified as type 1 diabetes as there was no effective way to differentiate between diabetes types, resulting in misclassification for some people with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes. Some records can be checked against APEG registrations, as is done with the NDR, but older records may be prone to misclassification. Due to this issue, an algorithm has been applied to check diabetes status based on insulin use, age at diagnosis and the lag time between insulin diagnosis and initiating insulin therapy. The following criteria was applied:
- Type 1 diabetes status was assigned to registrants recorded as type 1 who were diagnosed at age <45 and taking insulin.
- Registrants with type 2 diabetes who were diagnosed before age 30 and were taking insulin within 1 year of the diagnosis date were reclassified as having type 1 diabetes.
The registration date was used as a proxy for the diagnosis date due to a high level of missing diagnosis date information for older registrants.
Statistics in this release were extracted by the AIHW from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) claim records data in the Australian Government Department of Health Enterprise Data Warehouse.
The MBS provides a subsidy for services listed in the MBS, for all Australian residents and certain categories of visitors to Australia. The major elements of Medicare are contained in the Health Insurance Act 1973. See details of the services covered by the MBS. The statistics in this release are reported using date of processing up to 23 November 2021 and date of service up to 31 August 2021.
Items 66554, 66545 and 66548 are pregnancy related. The data contain some males and also persons in the 0–5 or 10–15 age groups. This can be attributed to a number of reasons, such as the medical services being attributed to the wrong member of the family, the sex or age information in the Medicare enrolment file being wrong or persons reporting their gender at the time of claiming the Medicare service, as male. These data were excluded from the analysis.
MBS items for pathology tests are subject to episode coning. Episode coning is an MBS funding arrangement that applies to general practitioners ordering more than three items in an episode for a non-hospitalised patient on the same day. Under the coning rule, Medicare benefits are only payable for the three most expensive items. The remaining items are coned out. As a result of the application of this rule, MBS data for some items will not reflect the number of tests performed for non-hospitalised patients.
Pathology services requested for hospitalised patients, or ordered by specialists, are not subject to these coning arrangements. Episode coning was introduced to prevent over servicing by doctors.
The National (insulin-treated) Diabetes Register (NDR) holds information about people who use insulin as part of their treatment for diabetes. The NDR was established in 1999 and includes most people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes since this time, as well as those who use insulin to manage type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and other, less common forms of diabetes. Almost all people with type 1 diabetes who were diagnosed from 1999 onwards are captured on the NDR. This is because all people with type 1 diabetes require insulin to treat their condition and this need for insulin acts as a driver to register with the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) where the products for administering insulin (pens/needles, or insulin pump consumables) can be obtained at subsidised prices. Additionally, the coverage rate of the NDR is high for those diagnosed under 15 years as data are also obtained from the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group (APEG) state-based registers.
Due to the scope of data collected on the NDR, prevalence estimates can only be reported for people aged up to 21 as of the NDR 2021.
For more information see the NDR 2021 data quality statement.
The 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 the 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 subsequently, 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) and 10 (hospital boarder).
The National Hospital Morbidity Database include information on people’s area of usual residence at the time of hospitalisation. For 2023–24, this was their SA2 based on the 2021 ASGS.
Further information about the NHMD can be found in Admitted patient care NMDS 2023–24.
The 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) and 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 identifying First Nations people in mortality data.
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.
The data quality statements underpinning the AIHW NMD can be found in the following ABS publications:
- ABS quality declaration summary for Deaths, Australia.
- ABS quality declaration summary for Causes of death, Australia.
For more information see National Mortality Database (NMD).
The 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 registered for care in emergency departments in selected public hospitals. The database only captures information for physical presentations to emergency departments and does not include advice provided via telehealth or videoconferencing.
Patients being treated in emergency departments may be subsequently 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 NMDS and the APC NMDS.
The National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database includes information on people’s area of usual residence at the time of ED admission. For 2024–25, this was their SA2 based on the 2021 ASGS.
Principal diagnoses for episodes of care in the NNAPEDCD 2024–25 are coded according to the Emergency Department ICD-10-AM Principal Diagnosis Shortlist.
Further information about the NNAPEDCD can be found in Non-admitted patient emergency department care NMDS 2024–25.
MedicineInsight data collection is currently managed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and formerly managed by NPS MedicineWise. The data comprise de-identified electronic health records (EHRs) from Australian general practices that participate in the program.
MedicineInsight data include information on people living with diabetes and their interaction with the primary health care system through general practice.
Patient population percentages have been weighted to adjust for an over-representation of registered GP sites in Tasmania.
The Australian Government subsidises the cost of a wide range of medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS). Claims for reimbursement for the supply of PBS- or RPBS-subsidised medicines are submitted by pharmacies through Services Australia for processing and are provided to the Australian Government Department of Health. Subsidies for prescription medicines are available to all Australian residents who hold a current Medicare card, and overseas visitors from countries with which Australia has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement. In general, patients pay a contribution to the cost of the medicine (co-payment), and the Australian Government covers the remaining cost. This remaining cost is referred to as the benefit paid.
PBS data in this report are from records of prescriptions dispensed under the PBS and RPBS, where either:
- the Australian Government paid a subsidy
- the prescription was dispensed at a price less than the relevant patient co-payment (under co-payment prescriptions) and did not attract a subsidy.
PBS data cover all PBS prescriptions dispensed by approved suppliers, including community pharmacies, public and private hospital pharmacies and dispensing doctors.