Palliative care services in Australia

In 2023–24 there were 12.6 million hospitalisations across Australia, of which 107,500 were palliative care-related hospitalisations (Table 1 in PCSiA 2025 in Data tables: PCSiA 2025 Admitted patient palliative care). 

Of all palliative-care related hospitalisations, over half (54% or 57,800) were primary palliative care hospitalisations (21 per 10,000 population) and 49,700 (46%) were other palliative care hospitalisations (18 per 10,000 population). Most palliative care-related hospitalisations occurred in public hospitals (85%), compared with 59% for hospitalisations for all reasons (Table 13). 

Among the 107,500 palliative care-related hospitalisations (Figure 1): 

• Almost 3 in 5 (59%) were provided to people aged 75 and over and less than 1 in 10 (8.4%) were for people aged under 55.
• The median age at admission was 77 years, which was considerably older than for hospitalisations for all reasons (61 years). 
• 3,100 (2.9%) were provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, most of which occurred in public hospitals (95%; Table 2) – a higher proportion than for other Australians (85%).
• Rates of palliative care-related hospitalisations in public hospitals increased as socioeconomic disadvantage increased (from 25 to 44 per 10,000 population, for people living in the highest compared to the lowest socioeconomically disadvantaged areas). Conversely, rates in private hospitals decreased with greater socioeconomic disadvantage (from 9.2 to 3.7 per 10,000 population). These patterns are also observed in hospitalisations for all reasons (Table 3).

As highlighted in Figure 1, there were regional variations in palliative care-related hospitalisations. In public hospitals, the rates of palliative care-related hospitalisations for people living in Outer and Inner regional areas (both 42 per 10,000 population) were higher than in Major cities and Remote and very remote areas (31 and 34 per 10,000 population, respectively). A different pattern was observed in private hospitals, with palliative-care related hospitalisations decreasing with increasing remoteness (from 6.2 in Major cities to 1.5 per 10,000 in Remote and very remote areas). 

Figure 1 also highlights variations across the states and territories. Information on palliative care-related hospitalisations at the Primary Health Networks (PHN) level are included in Table 6 and the PHN palliative care services information chapter. 

Note, that regional differences in palliative care-related hospitalisations may be influenced by variations in hospital admission policies, practices, and service types.