Access to health care and community services is regarded as essential to quality of life, and therefore the nature, size, distribution and effectiveness of the health and community services workforce is the subject of much scrutiny by governments, the media and the community. There is great interest—not only among those providing these services but also in the populations they serve—in real and potential changes in the size and composition of the workforce. For example, there have been numerous reports in the media about shortages of doctors and nurses, particularly for rural areas.
This website provides detailed data on the numbers, demographic characteristics, activity and distribution of health and community service workers. Information of this nature assists workforce planning, which in turn is critical to providing an adequate and suitably distributed health and community service workforce around Australia.
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics presented are from AIHW sources.
