CANBERRA, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Australia's health care and social assistance sector has become the country's largest industry in current-price terms, generating 265.2 billion Australian dollars (about 172 billion U.S. dollars) in gross value added in 2025-26, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.
The sector accounted for 9.6 percent of Australia's total economic activity and was also the country's largest employer, with 2.58 million jobs, or 15.8 percent of total employment.
The ABS said the latest estimates incorporated more detailed industry surveys and administrative data, allowing it to better measure market-based services such as private health care, aged care and disability services.
The revised methodology lifted the sector's estimated economic value by 13.9 billion Australian dollars for 2023-24 compared with previous estimates.
In real terms, the sector has more than tripled in size over the past three decades. ■