In 2023–24, there were 40.9 million non-admitted patient care service events reported at episode-level across Australia (AIHW 2025), of which 1.0 million were palliative care-related service events (Table 1 in Data tables: PCSiA 2025 non-admitted patient palliative care).
Of these palliative care-related service events (Figure 1):
- primary palliative care services events (identified by care type) accounted for 97% of all events – 997,000 or 370 per 10,000 population. Only 2.7% of palliative care services events were identified solely by Tier 2 clinic type (see Box 1 for further details)
- almost 3 in 4 (74%) were provided to people aged 65 and over, 15% to people aged 55-64, and 11% for people aged under 55. The median age at the time of receiving the service was 75 years
- 30,900 (3%) were provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, equating to 303 service events per 10,000 population
- the rate of service events were higher for people living in areas of most socioeconomically disadvantaged - 425 service events per 10,000 population for people compared to 290 service events per 10,000 for people living in the least socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, respectively.
As highlighted in Figure 1, there were regional variations in palliative care-related service events. For example, the rate of palliative care-related service events was higher in Inner regional (475 per 10,000) and Outer regional (451 per 10,000) areas than Major cities (316 per 10,000) and Remote and very remote areas (395 per 10,000).
Figure 1 also highlights variations by states and territories. Information on palliative care service events at the Primary Health Networks (PHN) level are included in Table 2 and in the PHN palliative care services information chapter.
Note, that regional differences in palliative care service events may be influenced by variations in admission policies, practices, service types and the scope of hospitals across jurisdictions.
