The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's national agency for

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

and

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

on Australia's

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

. Statistics and data developed by the AIHW are used extensively to inform discussion and policy decisions on health,

community services Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...

and

housing assistance Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housin ...

. Under Australia's constitution, health and welfare services are primarily delivered by the states and territories, who are also mainly responsible for the collection of statistics on these services. A fundamental aim of the institute is to promote consistency among national, state and territory statistics, in order to produce comprehensive national data of the highest standard. The AIHW is an Australian Government

statutory agency A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being empowered or delegated to set rules (for example reg ...

established under the ''Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987''. The Act contains very strong

confidentiality Confidentiality involves a set of rules or a promise usually executed through confidentiality agreements that limits the access or places restrictions on certain types of information. Legal confidentiality By law, lawyers are often required ...

protections for all data held, and requires the AIHW to publish two key biennial reports in alternate years: ''Australia's health'' and ''Australia's welfare''. Numerous other reports are produced each year, all of which are available free of charge on the AIHW website. In 2016, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the National Hospital Performance Authority merged.

References

Medical and health organisations based in Australia {{Australia-gov-stub