Foreign-born aged care workers in Australia: A growing trend.

AIM: To address Australian aged care workforce challenges, a deeper understanding of the current care workforce is needed especially given estimated increases in demand. We provide a national picture of the aged care workforce in Australia focusing on country of birth.

METHODS: Data from the 2006 and 2011 Australian censuses.

RESULTS: The majority of care workers are Australia-born followed by those born in the United Kingdom, South-East Asia and South Asia. While the number of carers from all regions has grown, the increase from 2006 to 2011 has been highest for carers from South Asia (333% increase) and sub-Saharan Africa (145%). The state with the largest decrease in the proportion of Australian-born care workers is Western Australia where Australian-born workers dropped from 62% in 2006 to 49% in 2011.

CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the migration patterns of the aged care workforce in Australia is critical to health workforce planning given increasing demand.