This article describes the social, socioeconomic and other health-related characteristics of people receiving formal, publicly funded home care services. The data are from the household component of the 1994/95 National Population Health Survey. The analysis covers 16,291 respondents aged 18 or older. Recipients of publicly funded home care services were profiled using weighted univariate frequencies and multivariate logistic regression. Recipients of publicly funded home care services in 1994/95 numbered over half a million. People who were elderly, female, had two or more chronic conditions or were living with others accounted for large proportions of these recipients. Characteristics significantly associated with receiving home care included old age, poor or fair general health, abstinence from alcohol (compared with regular use), low income, living alone, needing help with some activity of daily living, and having cancer or the effects of a stroke.