Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings

Latest release

This release includes analysis and data cubes focusing on national level data as well as relevant explanatory material

Reference period
2022

Key statistics

Disability

  • 5.5 million Australians (21.4%) had disability, up from 17.7% in 2018.
  • 15.0% of people aged 0-64 years had disability, compared with 52.3% of people aged 65 years and over.
  • Disability prevalence was similar for males (21.0%) and females (21.8%).
  • 7.9% of all Australians had a profound or severe disability.

Older people

  • 17.1% of Australians were aged 65 years and over (up from 15.9% in 2018). 
  • 95.9% of older Australians were living in households, while 4.1% lived in cared-accommodation.
  • 52.3% of older Australians had disability, and 86.6% had one or more long term health conditions.
  • 39.8% of older Australians living at home needed some assistance with everyday activities.

Carers

  • There were 3.0 million carers, representing 11.9% of all Australians living in households (up from 10.8% in 2018).
  • 12.8% of all females were carers, compared with 11.1% of all males.
  • There were 391,300 young carers (under the age of 25), up from 235,300 in 2018.
  • There were 1.2 million primary carers in Australia, and of these, 43.8% had disability themselves.

Alternative accessible resources

Selected key findings from this publication are available in the following formats:

Disability

In 2022, 5.5 million (21.4%) Australians had disability, an increase from 4.4 million (17.7%) in 2018. In the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC), a person is considered to have disability if they have any limitation, restriction or impairment which restricts everyday activities and has lasted, or is likely to last, for six months or more.

The age standardised disability rate was 19.2% in 2022, an increase from 16.1% in 2018. See the Methodology for more information on age standardisation.

There are several factors which may have contributed to the change in disability prevalence between 2018 and 2022. These include, but are not limited to:

  • a growing awareness of disability in Australia
  • a general increase in prevalence of some long-term health conditions
  • an online, self-completion questionnaire being offered as an option for the first time in 2022
  • an ageing population.

While each of these factors described above may have had an impact on the reported prevalence rate, it is not possible to quantify the size of the influence they may have had. For more details, see the Methodology.

Age and sex

Disability prevalence was similar for males and females. 

In 2022:

  • 21.0% of males had disability, an increase from 17.6% in 2018
  • 21.8% of females had disability, an increase from 17.8% in 2018.

The rate of disability generally increased with age for males and females. 

In 2022:

  • 5.7% of children aged 0-4 years had disability, increasing to 83.1% of those aged 90 years and over
  • about one in seven (15.0%) people aged 0-64 years had disability
  • 2.3 million people aged 65 years and over had disability, representing over half (52.3%) of all older Australians (up from 1.9 million or 49.6% in 2018)
  • the largest difference between males and females was for children aged 5-14 years (16.4% of boys with disability compared with 10.7% of girls).

Disability prevalence over time

Disability prevalence has increased between 2018 and 2022 for all age groups below 70 years of age. The rate has remained similar for age groups 70 years and over. Some notable increases have occurred in the younger age groups:

  • 5.7% of children aged 0-4 years had disability, an increase from 3.7% in 2018
  • 13.9% of people aged 15-24 years had disability, an increase from 9.3% in 2018.

Disability status

Disability status is a measure of the severity of limitations experienced by people with disability. In 2022, of the 5.5 million Australians who had disability, almost 4.8 million people (87.4%) had a limitation with at least one of the core activities of communication, mobility or self-care, and/or a schooling or employment restriction. 

As a proportion of the Australian population:

  • 4.1% had a profound limitation
  • 3.8% had a severe limitation
  • 3.1% had a moderate limitation
  • 6.1% had a mild limitation
  • 10.4% had a schooling or employment restriction. 
     

Profound or severe disability by age and sex

Overall, the proportion of females who had a profound or severe limitation (8.1%) was similar to males (7.7%); however, this was not the case for children. Generally, boys were more likely than girls to have a profound or severe limitation:

  • 4.4% of boys aged 0-4 years, compared with 3.1% of girls
  • 10.3% of boys aged 5-14 years, compared with 5.6% of girls.

This pattern was reversed for older people (older females were more likely than older males in the same age group to have a profound or severe limitation):

  • 26.0% of females aged 75-84 years, compared with 23.1% of males 
  • half (50.6%) of all females aged 85-89 years, compared with 39.6% of males
  • over two-thirds (68.8%) of females aged 90 years and over, compared with 64.7% of males.

Main long-term health conditions of people with disability

Living arrangements for people with disability

Selected characteristics of people with disability

Employment characteristics of people with disability

Income of people with disability

Need for assistance for people with disability

Aids and equipment for people with disability

Access and disability

Disability discrimination

Avoiding situations because of disability

Abuse and neglect of people with disability

Social and community participation for people with disability

Older people

Australia’s population is continuing to age. Among the 25.6 million Australians in 2022, more than one in every six (17.1% or 4.4 million people) was aged 65 years and over, increasing from:

  • 15.9% in 2018 (or 3.9 million people)
  • 15.1% in 2015 (or 3.5 million people)
  • 14.3% in 2012 (or 3.3 million people)
  • 13.3% in 2009 (or 2.9 million people).

This represents an estimated 52% increase in the number of older people between 2009 and 2022, compared with a 12% increase for those aged 0 to 64 years over the same period (from 18.9 million to 21.2 million).

A higher proportion of females were aged 65 years and over (18.0%) than males (16.2%). 

In 2022:

  • 13.3% of females were aged 65-79 years, compared with 12.5% of males
  • 4.7% of females were aged 80 years and over, compared with 3.7% of males.
  1. Persons includes respondents who selected another-term for their sex recorded at birth and not stated

Disability in older people

Long-term health conditions of older people

Living arrangements and housing tenure of older people

Selected characteristics of older people

Income of older people

Need for assistance for older people

Abuse and neglect of older people

Social and community participation for older people

Carers

In SDAC, a carer is a person who provides any informal assistance (help or supervision) to people with disability or older people (aged 65 years and over). The questions about carers are only asked of people who are living in households and providing unpaid care.

Carers can be split further by type:

  • Primary carers are people aged 15 years and over who provides the most informal assistance with the core activities of mobility, self-care and communication. Their lives are often significantly impacted by their caring role. 
  • Secondary carers are people aged 15 years and over who provide care with at least one of the core activities, for at least one hour per week, however they do not provide the most care (ie. they are not the primary carer).
  • Other carers are those people of any age who provide any other informal care (ie. they are not the primary carer and not the secondary carer). 

Overall, care for a person may be provided by one, or by multiple carers within the same household or family. For more details, see the Methodology.

In 2022 there were 3.0 million carers in Australia, an increase from 2.6 million in 2018.

In 2022:

  • around one in eight (11.9%) Australians provided unpaid care to people with disability and older people, up from 10.8% in 2018
  • 4.5% of all Australians (1.2 million people) were primary carers, an increase from 3.5% (861,600 people) in 2018
  • there were 383,600 secondary carers and almost 1.5 million other carers, indicating that a large amount of informal care is provided to supplement that provided by primary carers.

All carers - age and sex

In 2022:

  • the average age of a carer (any type) was 50 years
  • 12.9% of all carers (391,300 people) were under the age of 25, an increase from 8.9% or 235,300 people in 2018

Overall, females were more likely to be carers than males, with 12.8% of all females providing care in 2022 (similar to 12.3% in 2018) compared with 11.1% of males (an increase from 9.3% in 2018). 

In 2022: 

  • of females, those aged 45-54 years (20.5%), 55-64 years (19.5%) and 65-74 years (18.6%) provided the most unpaid care 
  • of males, those aged 65-74 years (19.7%) and 75 years and over (20.1%) provided the most unpaid care.

Primary carers - age and sex

Similar to all carers, the rate of primary carers generally increased with age. In 2022, of the 1.2 million primary carers:

  • 1.2% of those aged 15-24 years were primary carers, compared with 7.9% of those aged 45-54 years
  • the rate of primary carers was similar across older age groups (7.6% for 55-64 years, 8.7% for 65-74 years, and 7.2% for those aged 75 years and over)
  • the average age of a primary carer was 54 years. 

Two-thirds (67.7%) of primary carers were female. There were a greater number of female primary carers than male primary carers across most age groups, except for the youngest (15-24 years) and oldest (75 years and over) where the balance was similar:

  • there were more than four times as many female primary carers (156,000) than male primary carers (38,900) aged 35-44 years
  • there were more than three times as many female primary carers (191,200) than male primary carers (58,400) aged 45-54 years
  • there were more than twice as many female primary carers (150,100) than male primary carers (74,500) aged 55-64 years.

Disability status of carers

Selected characteristics of primary carers

Employment characteristics of carers

Income of carers

Recipients of care from primary carers

Assistance provided by primary carers

Reasons for taking on a caring role

Assistance received to help with the caring role

Social and community participation for primary carers

Footnotes

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021), Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): Technical Paper, ABS Website, accessed 20 June 2024.
  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021), Equivalised total household income (weekly) (HIED), ABS Website, accessed 20 June 2024.

Data downloads

Disability tables

Older people tables

Carers tables

Data Item List

Health Conditions Concordance 2018 to 2022

Post release changes

11/10/2024 – Additional release of the ‘Autism in Australia’ article and tables.

Methodology

Scope

Includes:

  • all usual residents in Australia living in private dwellings or cared-accommodation
  • urban and rural areas in all states and territories, excluding very remote parts of Australia and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Geography

The data available includes estimates for:

  • Australia.

Source

The Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Collection method

Household component:

  • online form completed by members of selected households, and/or,
  • face-to-face interview with an ABS Interviewer.

Cared-accommodation component:

  • online form completed by establishments that provide long-term cared accommodation.

Concepts, sources and methods

Health conditions are presented using a classification which is based on the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

History of changes

Full history of changes.

View full methodology
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