Disability statistics

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 17.9% of Queenslanders, or just under 1 in every 5 people, have a disability. Over 150,000 Queenslanders have a severe disability and require help or assistance with self-care, mobility or communication needs.

There has been a decline in the number of Queenslanders with disability caused by physical health conditions such as arthritis and back problems in recent years. Queensland has a lower incidence of disability than states including Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.

Australians with disability

Research from the survey of Disability, Australia, 2009, and the survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2009, indicates that 4 million people in Australia (18.5% of the population) have a disability. This includes:

• 3.4% of children aged 0-4
• 8.6% of people aged 25-34
• 40.1% of people aged 65-69
• 88.3% of people aged 90 years and over.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability

Research published in The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2010 indicates that in 2008:

• 258,500 (50%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years or over had a disability or a long-term health condition
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults were 1½ times as likely as non-Indigenous Australian adults to have a disability or long-term health condition.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were twice as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to require care, services and assistance to meet their self-care, mobility or communication needs in 2008. Around 1 in 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people required support with everyday activities at this time.

The most common types of disability or long-term conditions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are:

• physical disabilities, such as paraplegia and quadriplegia. More than 105,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a physical disability in 2008.
• disabilities or long-term conditions that restrict everyday activities or require treatment and medication, including Alzheimer's disease, dementia, arthritis and heart disease. More than 79,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a restrictive disability or long-term condition in 2008.
• sight, hearing or speech disabilities, such as blindness and deafness. More than 55,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a sight, hearing or speech disability in 2008.
• psychological disabilities, such as schizophrenia and depression. More than 25,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a psychological disability in 2008.
• intellectual disabilities. More than 25,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had an intellectual disability in 2008.
• Research from the 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey shows a gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health outcomes in Australia-with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being more likely than non-Indigenous people to have disabilities of all types. Specifically, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are:
• more than 3 times as likely to have an intellectual disability
• more than twice as likely to have a long-term condition or disability that means they require support meeting self-care, communication or mobility needs
• more than twice as likely to have a psychological disability.

Carers and support

People with disability needed care, services and assistance in the following ways in 2009:

• 39% needed assistance with mobility
• 25% needed assistance with self-care
• 46% needed assistance with health care
• 63% of Australians aged 60 and over did not need any help with performing daily activities. Older Australians who did require help commonly asked for support with maintaining a home or property and mobility assistance.

In Queensland, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 494,200 people—or 11.4% of the state's population, were carers in 2009. In Australia, an estimated 2.6 million unpaid carers help people with disability, or the aged. Of these, about 750,000 are primary carers—offering the majority of informal help to people with a disability or the aged. In 2009, over two-thirds of primary carers (68%) were women.

More information

The Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare can provide further statistics on disability in Australia.