Overview

Disability is an umbrella term for any or all of the following components, all of which may also be influenced by environmental and personal factors:

  • impairment—problems in body function or structure
  • activity limitation—difficulties in executing activities
  • participation restriction—problems an individual may experience in involvement in life situations.

More reports and statistics on disability can be found under Disability services.

Latest findings

47% of adults with disability have experienced violence after the age of 15, compared with 36% without disability 24% of adults with disability experience very good or excellent health, compared with 65% without disability 32% of adults with disability experience high/very high psychological distress, compared with 8% without disability People with acquired brain injury and neurological disabilities had the highest rates of death 6.3% of service user deaths were caused by perinatal and congenital conditions 5.9% of service user deaths were caused by spinal muscular atrophy Rates of potentially avoidable deaths for male service users was 1.5 times as high as the rate for females Service users’ rate of potentially avoidable deaths was 3.6 times as high as the rate for the general population Service users were 4.7 times as likely to die before aged 65 compared with the general population 48% of working-age (aged 15–64) people with disability are employed, compared with 80% without disability

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Highlights

Around 5,600 peopleaged under 65 are younger people in permanent residential aged care (at 30 June 2019)
1 in 10 (9.6%) people aged 15 and over with disability have experienced disability discrimination in the last year
1 in 2 (48%)people with disability aged 5 and over living in households have a schooling or employment restriction
1 in 6 (18%)people in Australia have disability (about 4.4 million people)