Australia’s aged care system provides care and support to people in a variety of settings.
Last updated: 26 April 2023
Contents
Related information can be found on other GEN topic pages:
For a list of residential care, home care and flexible care services, view the
Aged care service list.
For a confidentialised unit record file (CURF) on this topic, view the
GEN data: Providers, services and places in aged care.
For more information about providers, services and places in aged care, view the
Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act.
Providers, services and places in Australia
A provider (or organisation) manages an aged care service. Providers may operate a number of different services, sometimes across different aged care programs. A service is a facility that provides aged care, such as residential care or home care. A service can also be an outlet that provides home support. The Australian Government provides funding for those services that it has approved.
Residential and flexible care services are allocated a set number of government-funded places (or ‘beds’). When they are counted they can be either occupied by an approved care recipient, or available to be occupied. At 30 June 2022, the average occupancy rate across all residential aged care places was 86%.
For more information on managing supply and demand of aged care places, see the Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act or the Stocktake of Australian Government Subsidised Aged Care Places.
At 30 June 2022 (or during the 2021–22 financial year for home support):
- 1,407 providers were providing home support through 3,760 outlets.
- 916 providers were delivering home care through 2,427 services.
- 811 providers were delivering residential aged care through 2,671 services.
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The table shows the number of aged care providers, services and places for each care type. The largest number of aged care providers was for home support (1,407 providers). Home care had the second largest number of aged care providers (916 providers). The largest number of aged care places was in residential aged care (219,965 places).
Data interpretation
Since 2017, we no longer report on ‘places’ in home care because government funding for home care is no longer attached to a place in a particular service. This affects some of the time series data for this topic.
The location of the service is a base from which care is delivered, so services for home care and home support can deliver care some distance away from the physical location of a service.
For information on the number of people receiving home care and home support see
People using aged care.
The aged care system offers a continuum of care under three main types of service:
- Home support (Commonwealth Home Support Programme), which provides entry-level services focused on supporting individuals to undertake tasks of daily living to enable them to be more independent at home and in the community.
- Home care (Home Care Packages Program), which is a more structured, more comprehensive package of home-based support, provided over four levels.
- Residential aged care, which provides support and accommodation for people who have been assessed as needing higher levels of care than can be provided in the home, and the option for 24-hour nursing care. Residential care is provided on either a permanent, or a temporary (respite) basis.
There are also several types of flexible care, and services for specific population groups, available that extend across the spectrum from home support to residential aged care:
- Transition care, which provides short-term care to restore independent living after a hospital stay
- Short-term restorative care, which expands on transition care to include anyone whose capacity to live independently is at risk
- Multi-purpose services, which offer aged care alongside health services in Regional and remote areas
- Innovative Care Programme, which includes a range of programs to support flexible ways of providing care to target population groups
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program, which provides culturally-appropriate aged care at home and in the community
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs community nursing and Veterans’ Home Care services for eligible veterans and their families, which provides support to help people stay independent and in their own home.
For more information on aged care services in Australia see the
Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act, or visit the
Department of Health and Aged Care website.
Management of aged care services
Aged care services are operated by not-for-profit (religious, charitable and community), government, or private organisations. In most cases, the Australian Government contributes towards the cost of care – you can read more about this in the Spending topic.
At 30 June 2022 (or during the 2021–22 financial year for home support):
- Not-for-profit organisations operated the majority of aged care services across Australia (57% of residential aged care, 68% of home care, and 69% of home support services, excluding unknown organisations).
- Private organisations operated the second highest number of residential aged care (35%) and home care (25%) services, but only 9.6% of home support services.
- Government organisations operated the fewest number of residential aged care (8.5%) and home care (7.1%) services, but more than one-fifth of home support services (21%).
- Compared across jurisdictions, the highest proportion of private and government-run residential aged care services was found within Victoria (43% and 21%, respectively).
- The Northern Territory (92%), Australian Capital Territory (89%) and Tasmania (83%) had the highest proportion of not-for-profit-run residential aged care services per jurisdiction.
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The stacked column graph shows the number of aged care services in each care type grouped by organisation type and geography (state and territory, and Australia total). The majority of residential aged care places in Australia were funded by not-for-profit organisations (57 per cent). Across the jurisdictions, Victoria had the highest proportion of private and government-run residential aged care services.
Services and places over time
Residential and flexible aged care programs are allocated a set number of government-funded places. The Australian Government manages the supply of aged care places by specifying a national target provision ratio of subsidised aged care places. This approach aims to grow the supply of aged care places in proportion to the growth in the older population. This means that more populated areas have larger numbers of aged care places available.
For more information on the supply of subsidised aged care see the Financial report on the Australian aged care sector 2020–21.
At 30 June 2022 (or during the 2021–22 financial year for home support):
- The total number of residential, transition and flexible aged care places had increased by 11% over the 5 years since 30 June 2017 – from 209,626 to 231,732 places.
- The number of home care services had increased by 2.5% over the 5 years since 30 June 2017 – from 2,367 to 2,427 services – but had decreased by 8.5% when compared with 30 June 2021 (2,652 services).
- The number of home support services had increased by 11% over the 5 years since 2016–17 – from 3,392 to 3,760 services.
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The column graph shows the number of aged care providers, services and places for each care type between 2016 and 2022. The number of residential aged care services increased from 2,669 in 2016 to 2,722 in 2020 and has since decreased to 2,671 in 2022. Similarly, the number of home care services has fluctuated, from 2,113 in 2016 to 2,691 in 2019, and 2,427 in 2022. The number of home support outlets increased from 3,392 in 2016–2017 to 3,760 in 2021–2022.
Provision and management of aged care over time
Highly populated states and territories have larger numbers of aged care places, as a specific number of aged care places are subsidised for every 1,000 people in the target population.
Between 30 June 2012 and 30 June 2022:
- For residential aged care, privately-run services experienced the most growth, with the number of places they were funded to manage increasing by 38% (from 66,335 to 91,658 places). However, the number of privately-run places per capita remained steady at around 30 per 1,000 people in the target population. By comparison, not-for-profit residential aged care services saw a decrease in places per capita – from 49 to 39 per 1,000 people in the target population.
- The number of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP) places in the Northern Territory had almost tripled (from 208 to 614 places). The number of government operated places per capita increased from 4.4 to 9.8 per 1,000 people in the target population and the number of not-for-profit places per capita increased from 23 to 38 per 1,000. The NATSIFACP is a prominent part of aged care service provision in the Northern Territory.
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The line graph shows the number of aged care places and the places per 1,000 people in the target population (all people aged 70 and over) disaggregated by care type, organisation type and geography (state and territory, and Australia total) over time (2012 to 2022). In residential care, services managed by private organisations have seen the most growth between 2012 and 2022 (38 per cent).
Size of residential aged care services over time
Private residential aged care services are more commonly large facilities, while not-for-profit and government-run services tend to be small.
At 30 June 2022:
- Almost 9 in 10 (89%) government-run residential aged care services and 39% of not-for-profit services were small facilities (with 60 or fewer operational places), compared with 18% of private services.
- The proportion of privately-run residential aged care services that were large facilities (with 101 or more operational places) increased from 25% at 30 June 2012 to 43%.
- Close to 3 in 5 (59%) residential aged care places operated by private organisations were in services that were large (101 or more operational places), compared with 46% of places operated by not-for-profit organisations, and 13% of places operated by government organisations.
- The number of places operated by large privately run residential aged care services had more than doubled since 30 June 2012 (an increase of 106%, from 26,281 to 54,077 places). In contrast, the number of places in large not-for-profit services had increased by 57% ,while the number of places in large government-run services decreased by 29% over the same period.
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The line graph shows the number of residential aged care services and the number of residential aged care places by organisation type, service size and year (2012 to 2022). In 2022, almost 9 in 10 government-run residential aged care services were small services (60 or fewer operational places). Close to three in five (59 per cent) residential aged care places operated by private organisations were in a large service (101 or more operational places).
States and territories
The map below shows where Australia’s aged care services are located. Each dot represents an aged care service, and the colour reflects the type of care it offers (see above for a description of these types of care). The location of the service is a base from which care is delivered, so services for home care and home support can deliver care some distance away from the physical location of the service marked on the map. (Note: home support services on this map are shown if they were active during the financial year 2021–22, while all other services are as at 30 June 2022).
Overall:
- Aged care services were concentrated in more densely populated urban areas.
- Some services, such as those providing flexible care, were more frequently located outside of densely populated urban areas.
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A map of Australia shows the number and location of aged care services grouped by care type and geography (state and territory). Residential aged care services are mostly located along Australia’s Eastern coastline and are concentrated in more densely populated urban areas.
Remoteness
The availability of aged care services varies depending on remoteness, with most aged care services located in major cities.
At 30 June 2022 (or during the 2021–22 financial year for home support):
- More than 3 in 5 (62%) residential aged care services were located in metropolitan areas (MM 1), compared with 21% located in rural, remote or very remote areas (MM 4–7). The number of residential aged care services per capita was highest in small rural towns (MM 5) – 1.2 residential care services per 1,000 people in the target population.
- One-quarter (25%) of home support services and 16% of home care services were located in rural, remote or very remote areas (MM 4–7). The number of services per capita for home support and home care were highest in very remote areas (MM 7) – 9.5 home support services per 1,000 people in the target population and 3.2 home care services per 1,000.
- Almost half (46%) of other flexible care services, which includes the NATSIFACP, were located in remote and very remote areas (MM 6–7), compared with just 4% located in metropolitan areas (MM 1).
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The stacked bar graph shows the proportion of aged care services by care type and remoteness (Modified Monash classification). More than 3 in 5 residential aged care services were located in metropolitan areas (MM 1), while other flexible care services, which includes the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program, were mostly located in remote areas (MM 5–7). This figure also includes a line graph showing number of services per 1,000 people in the target population (all people aged 70 and over) by care type and remoteness. Across all remoteness areas home support had the largest number of services per 1,000 target population.
The Modified Monash Model (MMM) is one of several classifications for defining whether a location is a city, rural, remote or very remote. The model measures remoteness and population size on a scale of Modified Monash (MM) category MM 1 to MM 7. MM 1 is a metropolitan area, including Australia’s major cities, and MM 7 is a very remote community, such as Longreach. You can learn more about MMM on the
Department of Health and Aged Care website.
COVID-19 and aged care provision
Australia has faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 illness can be more serious for people who have pre-existing health conditions, including older Australians.
Most of Australia’s residential aged care homes experienced a COVID-19 outbreak during 2021–22 (2,570 facilities experienced one or more outbreaks in 2021–22).
The Australian Government continues to support residential aged care providers to have access to personal protective equipment (PPE), COVID-19 vaccination clinics, PCR and rapid antigen testing, and supplementary workforce/Australian Defence Force clinical personnel. Similar supports are in place for in-home aged care services, including emergency provision of PPE, reimbursing costs of PPE and rapid antigen tests, and funding to support home support providers respond to unforeseen and exceptional circumstances.
For further information on aged care services and the COVID-19 pandemic, see the Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act and the COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian residential aged care facilities weekly report.