Almost two million Australians regularly take five or more medicines, with the rate soaring among older patients, new national data reveals.
Four in 10 Australians aged 75 years and over are experiencing polypharmacy, prompting fresh emphasis on medication reviews and deprescribing as the population ages.
The first national report dedicated to polypharmacy from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found around 1.9 million Australians – 7% of the population – were regularly dispensed five or more medicines in 2025.
But the burden was heavily concentrated among older Australians, with about 910,000 people aged 75 and over taking at least five medicines, equivalent to 40% of that age group.
That compared with 20% of people aged 65-74 and 9.5% of those aged 55-64, the Polypharmacy in Australia in 2025 report showed.
“While polypharmacy can be clinically appropriate and necessary for effective treatment, it is also associated with an increased risk of medication-related harm,” the AIHW said.
“These risks may include adverse drug reactions, interactions between medicines, and the chances of not taking medicines as prescribed.
“These risks increase as the number of medicines rises, highlighting the importance of regular medication reviews and appropriate prescribing.”
The AIHW warned the number of Australians exposed to multiple medicines was likely to increase as the population aged, with implications for medication safety, appropriate medicine use and healthcare utilisation.
It said the findings highlighted the importance of regular medication reviews, deprescribing where appropriate and monitoring for medicine-related risks.
“Monitoring polypharmacy can help identify population groups that may be at greater risk of medicine-related harm and support strategies (including those led by the ACSQHC) to improve the quality use of medicines,” the AIHW said.
“With an ageing population and a greater likelihood of chronic conditions and multimorbidity in older age groups (AIHW 2026), understanding patterns of polypharmacy can also inform health service planning, medication safety initiatives and the targeting of medication review services to people who are most likely to benefit.”
The report found a substantial group was taking considerably more than the five-medicine threshold.
Around 219,000 Australians were experiencing so-called “hyperpolypharmacy”, defined as regularly being dispensed 10 or more medicines.
They represented about 11% of people experiencing polypharmacy and 1% of the Australian population. One-third of people with polypharmacy were taking five medicines.
Rates of polypharmacy were almost identical between the sexes overall, at 7.1% among females and 7% among males.
However, the pattern changed with age. Females had higher rates between the ages of 15 and 54 years, while males overtook females from age 55.
Among those aged 75 and over, 42% of males and 39% of females experienced polypharmacy.
The medicines involved also differed markedly across the lifespan.
Among younger people experiencing polypharmacy, mental health and neurological medicines dominated, particularly antidepressants, antipsychotics and psychostimulants.
In older adults, medicines for chronic physical conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dyslipidaemia and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease became more prominent, although antidepressants remained common across most age groups.
Another eight million Australians, or 29% of the population, were regularly dispensed between one and four medicines in 2025. That proportion peaked at 58% among 65- to 74-year-olds, compared with 56% of people aged 75 and over.
The AIHW defined polypharmacy as regular use of five or more medicines over the year, with “regular” use requiring a medicine to have been dispensed on at least four occasions. Medicines generally used for short-term conditions, including antibiotics, were excluded.
The analysis was based on PBS and RPBS dispensing records and did not capture private prescriptions, meaning the results may underestimate the true extent of polypharmacy, the AIHW reported.
The data also contained no information about patients’ underlying medical conditions, limiting the ability to determine whether individual cases of polypharmacy were clinically appropriate.
Related
While the report focused on people experiencing polypharmacy, it also examined people who were regularly dispensed one to four medicines during the year.
“Analysing this group provides important context for understanding medicine use across the population and may help identify patterns among people approaching the threshold for polypharmacy,” the AIHW said.
“In particular, people regularly dispensed three or four medicines may be more likely to transition to polypharmacy over time.
“However, people taking one to four medicines and those experiencing polypharmacy may have very different underlying medical conditions and as the PBS/RPBS data does not contain information on underlying medical conditions, comparisons between these two groups should be made with care.”
In 2025, around eight million people in Australia (29% of the population) were taking one to four medicines.
Across all age groups, people taking one to four medicines outnumbered people experiencing polypharmacy.
The proportion of people taking one to four medicines increased with age, peaking at 58% among people aged 65–74 years.
The proportion was slightly lower among people aged 75 years and over (56% of the population aged 75 and over) but remained substantially higher than in younger age groups.
This pattern differed from polypharmacy, where the proportion of people experiencing polypharmacy increased steadily with age and was highest among people aged 75 years and over.
“The lower proportion of people taking one to four medicines among those aged 75 years and over may reflect a shift towards polypharmacy as people age and chronic conditions become more common (AIHW 2026),” the AIHW reported.
“However, this interpretation should be treated cautiously, as longitudinal analysis would be required to determine whether people taking one to four medicines transition to polypharmacy (from those taking three to four medicines to five or more) over time.”
See the full report here.
