Health, ageing & disabilityStatutory authorityExists today
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
AIHW
1992 – present
Previously Australian Institute of Health (1984–1992).
Independent statutory agency that collects, analyses and publishes national information and statistics on health, community services, housing assistance and welfare, including the Australia's Health and Australia's Welfare reports.
Names over time
- Australian Institute of Health1984–1992
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare1992–present
How it came into existence
Created in 1992 when amendments to the Australian Institute of Health Act 1987 (thereafter the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987) renamed the Australian Institute of Health and extended its remit to welfare and community services statistics.
Legislation: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987
Changes during its life
- Hospital and primary health care performance reporting
- MyHospitals website
Main functions
- National health and welfare statistics
- Australia's Health and Australia's Welfare reports
- National data standards and metadata
- Data linkage and custodianship of national data collections
- Hospital and health system performance reporting
- Disease, injury and mortality monitoring
Where it sits
In the portfolio of Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
- Type of body
- Corporate Commonwealth entity
- Portfolio
- Health, Disability and Ageing
- Accountable authority
- Board of the Institute – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 section 8 with reference to section 13A note (membership section 9)
- ABN
- 16 515 245 497
Lineage
Loading lineage…
Sources
Primary sources
- List of Commonwealth entities and companies under the PGPA Act, 1 July 2026 (Department of Finance)
- Australian Government Organisations Register (Department of Finance, data.gov.au) (listed from 11 December 2014 to the latest release (30 June 2026))