Notes on the data: Residential aged care places

Residential aged care places, 30 June 2023

Policy context: Residential aged care in Australia is subsidised by the Commonwealth Government and is governed by the Aged Care Act 1997. A residential aged care facility (sometimes known as a nursing home) is for older people who can no longer live at home and need ongoing help with everyday tasks or health care. The data shown here are of the number of places in such facilities.

The national standards are for operational residential places per 1,000 people aged 70 years or over, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 to 69 years [1]. However, as data are only available for total places (and not by Indigenous status), the rates shown here are per 1,000 total population.

Note: Some of the rates per 1,000 population are very high. This can occur when a facility is located in a Local Government Area or Population Health Area with a relatively low population, as people often access these facilities from a wide catchment, wider than the area in which they are located.

Reference

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Meteor (Metadata Online Registry). Available from: https://meteor-uat.aihw.gov.au/content/740826. Last accessed 14 April 2023

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Residential aged care places

Denominator: Population aged 70 years and over at June 2022 (population data at June 2023 not available at time of publication)

Detail of analysis: Rate per 1,000 population aged 70 years and over

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data from GEN Aged Care Data, available from https://www.gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/Resources/Access-data/2022/October/Aged-care-service-list-30-June-2023, accessed 21 November 2023; and Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimated Resident Population 30 June 2022.