Specific country notes have been prepared using data from the database OECD Health Statistics 2015, July 2015 version. The notes are available in PDF format.

Australia performs well in terms of overall population health status. At 82.2 years, life expectancy is the sixth highest in the OECD, and the country’s record on breast and colorectal cancer survival is among the best. Australia has one of the lowest rates of tobacco consumption (12.8% of the population aged 15 and over), but it is the fifth most obese country in the OECD (28.3% of the population aged 15 and over).

Australia should improve the integration of care across the patient pathway to prepare for a rise in chronic disease and make the health system less complex for patients, according to a new OECD report.

The 2015 edition introduces more detailed analysis of participation in early childhood and tertiary levels of education. The report also examines first generation tertiary-educated adults’ educational and social mobility, labour market outcomes for recent graduates, and participation in employer-sponsored formal and/or non-formal education.

The OECD welcomes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement at COP21 that Australia intends to ratify the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period, which sets mitigation targets and reporting requirements for 2013-2020.

The recent mental health reform is an important step towards better services for people with mental ill-health, but Australia needs to do more to help people with mild to moderate mental health issues at and into work, according to a new OECD report.

In 2012, 20% of students in Australia were low performers in mathematics (OECD average: 23%), 14% were low performers in reading (OECD average: 18%), 14% were low performers in science (OECD average: 18%), and 9% were low performers in all three of these subjects (OECD average: 12%)

The Australian health system is a complex mix of federal and state government funding and responsibility, making it difficult for patients to navigate. Despite its complexity, Australia’s universal health system achieves good results relatively efficiently.

Australia should provide early access to more intensive employment services for disadvantaged laid-off workers to help them find a new job more quickly, according to a new OECD report.

Australia should follow up on the reform of its vocational education system by improving quality control in the VET sector and step up career guidance for young people to boost young people’s job prospects and reduce the share of under-30-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs), according to a new OECD report.

Education at a Glance 2016 - Country Notes

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Australia. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

The number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) remains elevated in many countries since the crisis. This country note examines the characteristics of those at risk of being NEET in Australia along with policies to help meet the challenge. It also includes many new youth-specific indicators on family formation, self-sufficiency, income and poverty, health and social cohesion.

This country note presents student performance in science, reading and mathematics, and measures equity in education in Australia. The interactive charts allow you to compare results with other countries participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Australia, to be published at 00.01 am on Friday, 3 March 2017 AEDT (13.01, GMT; 14:01 Paris time Thursday), looks at Australia’s current macroeconomic situation, as well as the steps that can be taken to ensure stronger and more inclusive growth in the future. The Survey’s two in-depth chapters focus on innovation.

Australia’s strong economy has helped drive a healthy job market. But to avoid a future shortage of labour as the population ages, further efforts are needed to help older women, indigenous Australians and mothers with young children into work, according to a new OECD report.

How can we build a global economy driven by innovation when half the population is missing out on the action? The short answer is, we can’t.

The city of Newcastle is fast emerging as a smart, liveable and sustainable city.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) published today the first 10 outcomes of a new and enhanced peer review process aimed at assessing compliance with international standards for the exchange of information on request between tax authorities.

Selected findings for Australia from the report "The Pursuit of Gender Equality: An Uphill Battle"

Selected findings for Australia from the report "Preventing Ageing Unequally"

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

Key findings for Australia from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2017"

Australia has stepped up its enforcement of foreign bribery since 2012, when the OECD Working Group on Bribery last evaluated Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, with seven convictions in two cases and 19 ongoing investigations.

Australia’s active global engagement on development and its focus on fragile small island states and disaster risk reduction are commendable. However successive cuts to the country’s aid budget since 2013 are impairing its efforts, according to the latest DAC Peer Review of Australia.

This note presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that summarise the tax system’s impact on the incentives to make an additional investment in a particular type of savings. By comparing METRs on different types of household savings, we can gain insights into which assets or savings types receive the most favourable treatment from the tax system.

The Co-operative Research Programme (CRP)'s Call for Applications for conference sponsorship and research fellowships for funding in 2019 is now CLOSED. The CRP supports work on sustainable use of natural resources in agriculture, forests, fisheries and food production.

A Broken Social Elevator? Key findings for Australia

These graphs offer a brief summary of the commodity trade situation in the country.

This country note for Australia provides detail on the proportion of CO2 emissions from energy use subject to different effective carbon rates (ECR), as well as on the level and components of average ECRs in each of the six economic sectors (road transport, off-road transport, industry, agriculture and fishing, residential & commercial, and electricity).

Resistance proportions for eight antibiotic-bacterium pairs in Australia have increased in recent years, from 7% in 2005 to 10% in 2015, and could go up to 12% by 2030, should current trends in antibiotic consumption, population and economic growth continue into the future. Resistance proportions in Australia were lower than the OECD average in 2015 (17%).

The Australian standard GST rate is 10.0%, which is below the OECD average. The average VAT/GST¹ standard rate in the OECD was 19.3% as of 1 January 2019. Australia has an extensive list of goods and services that are GST-free. GST was introduced in Australia in 2000 at a standard rate of 10.0% and has remained at this rate throughout.

Economic growth has been resilient, exports and investment will support the economy and wage growth and price inflation will gradually pick up

Australia has made some progress replacing coal with natural gas and renewables in electricity generation yet remains one of the most carbon-intensive OECD countries and one of the few where greenhouse gas emissions (excluding land use and forestry) have risen in the past decade. The country will fall short of its 2030 emissions target without a major effort to move to a low-carbon model, according to a new OECD report.

Skills-Getting Skills Right-Country Note-Australia

This country fact-sheet presents key figures from "Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class". This report analyses the trends of middle-income households in areas such as employment, consumption, wealth and debt, as well as perceptions and social attitudes. It also includes recommendations for protecting middle-class living standards and financial security in the face of economic challenges.

About 36% of Australian jobs face a significant or high risk of automation. While this is less than the OECD average (46%), it means that a sizeable share of adults will need to upskill or retrain to meet the needs of future jobs.

This document describes the key findings for Australia from the OECD Skills Strategy 2019.

The most attractive OECD countries for highly qualified potential immigrants are Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada, in part because of favourable admission and stay conditions.

Australia's tax-to-GDP ratio was 27.8% in 2016* (latest available data), below the OECD average (34.2%) by 6.4 percentage points, and above the LAC and Africa (21)* averages (22.8% and 18.2%, respectively).

Australia has one of the highest rates of obesity: nearly one in three adults are obese. As a result, Australians live on average 2.7 years less due to overweight. The impact on the economy is large: overweight accounts for 8.6% of health expenditure; and lowers labour market outputs by the equivalent of 371 thousand full time workers per year. Combined, this means that overweight reduces Australia’s GDP by 3.1%.

This country note explains how Australia taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

Australia spends 9.3% of its GDP on health, slightly higher than the OECD average, and is projected to reach 13% by 2030. Australia also has more nurses (11.7 per 1000 people, compared to an OECD average of 8.8) and slightly more doctors (3.7 doctors versus an OECD average of 3.5) serving the population than in many OECD countries. These resources have contributed to good health outcomes.

Government at a Glance provides a dashboard of key indicators to help you analyse international comparisons of public sector performance.

Key findings for Australia from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2019"

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Australia increased by 0.9 percentage points from 27.6% in 2016 to 28.5% in 2017 (latest year available). The corresponding figures for the OECD average were a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from 34.4% to 34.2% over the same period.

This note presents selected findings based on the set of well-being indicators published in How's Life? 2020.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Australia decreased by 1.0 percentage point from 28.9 in 2018 to 27.9 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Australia had the 30th lowest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

Unemployment Rate in India increased to 7.80 percent in February from 7.20 percent in January of 2020. Unemployment Rate in India averaged 7.34 percent from 2018 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 8.20 percent in August of 2019 and a record low of 6.70 percent in November of 2018. In India, the unemployment rate is estimated by directly interviewing a large sample of randomly selected households. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Consumer Pyramids panel of households includes over 174,405 households including over 522,000 members who are over 15 years old. This page provides - India Unemployment Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Unemployment Rate in Angola increased to 31.80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 from 30.10 percent in the third quarter of 2019. Unemployment Rate in Angola averaged 26.68 percent from 2005 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005 and a record low of 19.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. In Angola, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force. This page provides - Angola Unemployment Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.