The Australian honours system celebrates the outstanding achievements and contributions of extraordinary Australians in a diverse range of fields and areas of endeavour. It is about recognising those people in the community whose service and contributions have had the effect of making a significant difference to Australian life or, more broadly, to humanity at large.

The Australian honours system recognises the actions and achievements of people who go above and beyond what could be reasonably expected, and in doing so, encourages national aspirations and ideals of the highest community standards and values.

Key Facts:

• One Australian in 1000 is a member of the Order of Australia (0.1%)
• Just over half of all people who are nominated get an award
• Women who are nominated generally do even better than men – since 1975, a total of 56.5% of nominations for women have been successful, compared with 50.3% for men
• On the 2015 Australia Day Honours List, women comprised 33.7% of the Australians honoured, that’s a 7% jump from 2013 when women received 26% of the accolades
• Over the past 12 years, the highest proportion of women recognised in the Australian honours was 35.7% in 2003

Read our PDF guide on how to nominate a woman for an Australian Honour here.