Participants, providers, SIL and scheme spending — every figure taken directly from the NDIA’s published quarterly report, with the table and section it came from. Figures are as at 31 March 2026 (Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26), the most recent report published at the time of writing. Nothing on this page is estimated or modelled.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Active participants (31 Mar 2026) | 774,456 | NDIA Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26 |
| Net participant growth, Dec 2025 to Mar 2026 | +13,014 (1.7%) | NDIA Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26 |
| Active providers (Mar 2026 quarter) | 277,376 | NDIA Q3 2025-26, Table 9 |
| Payments to providers (Mar 2026 quarter) | $12.4 billion | NDIA Q3 2025-26, Table 9 |
| Total scheme expenses, FY2024-25 (accrual) | $46.3 billion | NDIA, 12 months to June 2025 |
| Participants receiving SIL (31 Mar 2026) | 36,808 | NDIA Q3 2025-26, §4.4 |
| SIL payments, year to 31 Mar 2026 | $16.4 billion | NDIA Q3 2025-26, Table 10 |
| Participants using a plan manager | 526,376 | NDIA Q3 2025-26, Figure 27 |
A note on what is not here: we previously published market-share figures sourced to unnamed “sector analysis”. We could not verify them against NDIA data, so they have been removed. Everything above cites a specific table or section of the published report.
Divide 774,456 participants by 277,376 active providers and the scheme averages fewer than three participants per provider. That single ratio explains the sector’s economics better than anything else: this is one of the most fragmented service markets in Australia, and the contest is local rather than national. The provider who owns three suburbs beats the provider who is vaguely present in thirty.
The scheme is still growing. Participant numbers rose by 13,014 in the March 2026 quarter alone, a 1.7% quarterly increase. Demand is not the constraint for most providers; being findable at the moment a participant, family member or support coordinator goes looking is.
This is the most commercially important table on the page, because a participant’s funding management type determines whether they can engage you at all. Unregistered providers can only be paid through a plan manager or directly by a self-managing participant — never by the NDIA directly.
| Funding management | Payments (Mar 2026 quarter) | Active providers |
|---|---|---|
| Plan-managed | $7.9b (64%) | 207,052 |
| NDIA-managed | $3.3b (27%) | 10,451 |
| Self-managed | $1.2b (9%) | 133,781 |
| Total | $12.4b | 277,376 |
Source: NDIA Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26, Table 9. Provider counts by type overlap, because one provider can support participants across several funding types, so the three rows sum to more than the total.
Nearly two-thirds of every dollar now flows through plan managers, and 526,376 participants use one — up from 408,652 two years ago. The number of plan managers has stayed flat at roughly 1,443 to 1,481 over the same period, so each one now carries far more participants. For a provider, that means plan managers and support coordinators are concentrated referral gatekeepers, and there are only about 1,500 of them nationally.
SIL is the highest-value support category in the scheme, and the one where a single vacancy costs the most. As at 31 March 2026 there were 36,808 participants receiving SIL, with $4.1 billion in SIL supports delivered in the March quarter alone.
| Year ending 31 March | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Growth p.a. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participants with SIL supports | 34,310 | 36,432 | 36,808 | 4% |
| Total SIL payments ($m) | 13,391 | 15,228 | 16,398 | 11% |
| Average payment per participant | $409,400 | $430,500 | $447,100 | 5% |
| Core daily activities ($m) | 10,204 | 11,488 | 12,245 | 10% |
Source: NDIA Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26, Table 10.
Two things stand out for SIL providers. Payments are growing more than twice as fast as participant numbers (11% versus 4% a year), so the value per participant is rising rather than the pool. And the average SIL participant is associated with $447,100 in annual payments — which is why an unfilled room is the single most expensive problem a SIL provider has, and why filling it quickly is worth real marketing spend.
The published data supports three observations. Participant numbers continue to rise every quarter (+13,014 in the March 2026 quarter). Plan management continues to take share, concentrating referral influence in a small number of plan managers. And SIL spending is growing faster than SIL participant numbers, meaning the money is deepening per participant rather than spreading across more of them.
Every figure above is taken directly from the NDIA’s published Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26 (covering the quarter to 31 March 2026), and we name the table or section it came from so you can check it yourself. The only derived figures are participants per provider (774,456 ÷ 277,376) and the percentages already published alongside the source tables.
What we deliberately leave out. Anything we cannot trace to a named public source does not go on this page. In our August 2026 review we removed three previously published claims — a “largest provider market share” figure, a “top 25 providers’ share of payments” figure, and a claim about the financial results of the ten largest providers — because they were attributed only to unnamed sector analysis and we could not verify them against NDIA data. We would rather publish fewer numbers than unverifiable ones.
Currency. The NDIA publishes quarterly, roughly 45 days after quarter end. The report for the June 2026 quarter had not been published when this page was last revised; we update within days of each release.
This page is free to cite with a link: NDIS Growth, “NDIS Statistics (2026)”. Journalists and researchers who need the underlying references can contact us; we reply within four business hours.
There are 774,456 active NDIS participants as at the March 2026 NDIA quarterly report. That was a net increase of 13,014 participants (1.7%) on the December 2025 quarter.
There were 277,376 active providers in the March 2026 quarter, according to Table 9 of the NDIA’s Q3 2025-26 Quarterly Report. “Active” means they received a payment in the quarter; it is not the same as “registered”, and the large majority of active providers are unregistered. Divided across 774,456 participants, that averages fewer than three participants per provider, which is why the market is so fragmented and so local.
36,808 participants were receiving supported independent living (SIL) as at 31 March 2026, with $4.1 billion in SIL supports delivered in that quarter alone. Over the year to 31 March 2026, total SIL payments were $16.4 billion — an average of about $447,100 per SIL participant. SIL payments have grown 11% a year over the past two years while SIL participant numbers grew only 4% a year, so the value per participant is rising faster than the pool.
Total scheme expenses were $46.3 billion for the 12 months to June 2025 (accrual basis), making it one of the largest social programs in Australia. In the March 2026 quarter alone, $12.4 billion was paid to providers.
There is no single published “average plan” figure, and averages here are misleading. As a rough scale check, $12.4 billion was paid to providers in the March 2026 quarter across 774,456 participants, which annualises to roughly $64,000 per participant per year. Individual plans vary enormously: the average participant receiving SIL is associated with about $447,100 a year, while many plans are a small fraction of that.
New South Wales, followed by Victoria and Queensland. State and territory breakdowns are published in the NDIA’s quarterly report appendices and the NDIS Data and Insights portal rather than the main report, so we point you to the source rather than reproduce figures we cannot cite to a specific table.
Yes. Active participants rose by 13,014 in the March 2026 quarter, a 1.7% increase on December 2025, reaching 774,456. Spending is growing faster than participant numbers in high-value categories such as SIL.
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