77% of Australians use natural medicines at least once a year. (Retail Pharmacy, July 2002)

• 31% of Australians regularly visit a complementary medicine practitioner (Aust J of Pharmacy, 83, June 2002, 516-517)
• 86% of Australians think natural medicines have a role to play in healthcare. (Retail Pharmacy, July 2002)
• Australians spend twice as much on complementary medicines as they do on drugs. (Current Therapeutics, July 2000, 76-79)
• 40% of Australians would prefer to see a complementary medicine practitioner before seeing a doctor. (Current Therapeutics, July 2000, 76-79)
• 90% of Australian doctors get asked about natural medicines by their patients. (Australian Family Physician, June 2000, 29, 6, 602-606)
• 46% of Australian doctors have taken some form of training in natural medicine. (Australian Family Physician, June 2000, 29, 6, 602-606)
• A study by MacLennan in 1996 found that 4.4% of his sample had used homeopathic medicines in the past year, and 1.2% had visited a Homoeopath i.e. an estimated 240,000 homeopathic consultations in 1996 [MacLennan AH, Wilson DH, Taylor AW. Prevalence and cost of alternative medicine in Australia. Lancet, 1996, 347: 569-573].

Based on the 2004 registration figures of the Australian Register of Homoeopaths (AROH), and making the conservative assumption that each AROH-registered practitioners have on average 10 consultations per week, an estimate of over 300,000 homoeopathic consultations were made by registered Homoeopaths in 2004 i.e. an estimated 25% increase since 1996 (using MacLennan’s estimates for 1996)