Source data: Mental Health Workforce 2018 tables (489KB XLSX)
On average, male psychiatrists worked 7.0 total hours and 5.6 clinical hours more per week than female psychiatrists did. Psychiatrists employed in Remote and Outer regional areas reported working the highest number of total hours, on average (43.3 and 41.4 total hours respectively). Employed psychiatrists working in Remote areas reported working 4.6 more hours on average than the national average. The highest average weekly clinical hours were recorded for psychiatrists in Remote areas (36.6), followed by Outer regional areas (35.5).
Characteristics
In 2018, almost three–quarters of psychiatrists were aged 45 and over (72.9%); over 2 in 5 (41.3%) were aged 55 and over and nearly 1 in 5 employed psychiatrists (17.2%) were aged 65 and over.
In 2014, almost two-thirds of employed psychiatrists were male (62.9%), dropping to 59.5% in 2018. The proportion of female psychiatrists increased over the same period, from 37.1% in 2014 to 40.5% in 2018 (Figure WK.4).
Over time
Nationally, the population rate of psychiatrists has increased by 5.6% between 2014 and 2018 from 12.6 FTE per 100,000 in 2014 to 13.3 in 2018.
The age profile of psychiatrists has remained relatively stable over the 5 years to 2018; just over 7 in 10 psychiatrists were aged 45 and over each year from 2014 to 2018. The average hours worked per week was also relatively stable over the period, averaging 38.7 hours per week. Since 2014, the average total hours worked per week by females increased slightly but was consistently lower than that of males (34.5 average hours worked by females compared to 41.5 average hours worked by males in 2018).