What is Disability?
A disability is any condition that restricts a person’s mental, sensory or mobility functions. It may be caused by accident, trauma, genetics or disease. A disability may be temporary or permanent, total or partial, lifelong or acquired, visible or invisible.
See our page What is disability for more information.
Australian Disability Network has compiled the following key statistics relating to disability, labour force participation, employment and discrimination. When using any of the statistics, please cite the original source which is listed in the footnotes. We reserve the right to update, move or remove the information at any time.
Demographics
Demographics in 2022 – compiled from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) released in July 2024. [1]
- There are 5.5 million Australians with disability, representing 21.4 per cent of the population, an increase from 17.7 per cent in 2018. [1]
- 21.8 per cent of females and 21.0 per cent of males in Australia have disability. [1]
- Of all Australians with disability, 2.3 million were aged 65 years and over, representing more than half of all older Australians (52.3 per cent), an increase from 1.9 million or 49.6 per cent in 2018. [1]
- The likelihood of living with disability generally increased with age for males and females. Half the population (52.3 per cent) aged 65 years and over have disability. [1]
- One in seven (15 per cent) of people aged 0-64 years have disability, an increase fromone in nine (11.6 per cent) in 2018. [1]
Types of Disability
- In 2022, of the 5.5 million Australians with disability, over three-quarters (75.3 per cent) reported a physical disorder as their main condition (the condition causing them the most problems), a decrease since 2018 (76.8 per cent). [1]
- 4.1 per cent of all Australians had a profound limitation with at least one of the core activities of communication, mobility or self-care, and/or a schooling or employment restriction, and 3.8 per cent had a severe limitation. [1]
- Of all people with disability, just under one-quarter (24.7 per cent). [1]
- a mental or behavioural disorder as their main condition, up from 22.6 per cent in 2018. [1]
- 3.6 million Australians have some level of hearing loss. [2]
- 16,000 Australians use Auslan. That number includes people for whom Auslan is their primary or only language, and also people who use Auslan at home to communicate with native Auslan users, such as children of Deaf adults. [3]
- Vision Australia estimates there are currently 453,000 people in Australia who are blind or have low vision. They project that the number of Australians who are blind or have low vision will grow to 564,000 by 2030. (Refractive error not included). [4]
- Around 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, while one in five Australian adults will experience a mental illness in any given year. [5]
- Not having a job, or enough work, can affect mental wellbeing and impact physical health, relationships, and sense of identity. Financial health and mental health are closely linked. [6]
Income statistics
Compiled from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) released in July 2024[1]
In 2022, the most common main sources of income for people with disability were:
- wages or salary (48.9 per cent), an increase from 37.6 per cent in 2018. [1]
- government pensions or allowances (28.5 per cent), down from 37.9 per cent in 2018. [1]
A government pension or allowance was the main source of income for:
- half (50.2 per cent) of people with a profound or severe limitation, down from 58.6 per cent in 2018. [1]
- one in four (24.4 per cent) people with a moderate or mild limitation, down from 37.2 per cent in 2018. [1]
However, the number of persons with a profound or severe limitation aged 15 – 64 years, whose main source of income was from employment increased from 16.7 per cent in 2018 to 26.9 per cent in 2022. [1]
Disability can affect a person’s capacity to work and earn an income. In 2022, the median gross personal income of people with disability of working age (15-64 years) who were living in households and whose income was reported, was $575 per week, compared with $1055 per week for people without disability. [1]
Labour force participation
Compiled from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) released in July 2024 [1]
The labour force participation rate is the number of people in the labour force (employed plus unemployed) expressed as a percentage of the total population. [1]
In 2022, the labour force participation rate for people aged 15-64 years with disability (living in households), was 60.5 per cent, up from 53.4 per cent in 2018. The participation rate for people without disability was 84.9 per cent in 2022, compared with 84.1 per cent in 2018. [1]
Labour force participation declined with the severity of limitation – 64.6 per cent of those with a moderate or mild limitation were in the labour force, compared with 37.2 per cent of those with a profound or severe limitation. [1]
Employment
Compiled from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) released in July 2024 [1] and other sources.
In 2022, 2.7 million people with disability living in households were of working age (15-64 years). Of these:
- over half (56.1 per cent) were employed, compared with 82.3 per cent of people without disability. [1]
- one-third (33.4 per cent) were employed full-time, compared with more than half (57.9 per cent) of those without disability. [1]
- People with disability may experience employment restrictions because of their disability, such as restrictions around the type of job or number of hours they can work.[1]
- In 2022, of the 2.7 million people of working age with disability, 62.5 per cent had employment restrictions, down from 67.7 per cent in 2018. [1]
- Working-age (15–64) people with disability in the labour force face challenges seeking and engaging in employment. This is reflected in their generally lower rates of labour force participation and employment, and higher rates of unemployment, compared with working-age people without disability [7]
- 59 per cent of people with disability aged 15 – 64 who are not in the labour force are permanently unable to work. [7]
- 48 per cent of people of people with disability aged 15 – 64 are employed. This is lower than those without disability (80 per cent) [7]
- 1 in 10 employed people aged 15-64 with disability are underemployed [7]
- Young people (aged 15-24) are more likely to be underemployed than those aged 25-64. [7]
- People with disability aged 15 – 64 are twice as likely to be underemployed as those without disability [7]
- 93 per cent of unemployed people with disability aged 15 – 64 experience difficulties in finding employment [7]
- 17 per cent of employed wage or salary earners with disability aged 15 – 64 use leave arrangements to have one day or more off work per week in order to manage their disability: 25 per cent have flexible hours, 14 per cent take unpaid leave, 14 per cent sick leave and 53 per cent are casual or part time [7]
- The most common occupations of Australian people with disability are: professionals 23 per cent, technicians and trade workers 15 per cent, clerical and admin 13 per cent and labourers 12 per cent [7]
- Graduates with disability take 61.5 per cent longer to gain fulltime employment than other graduates [8]
- Global research has found that when employee health and wellness is managed well the percentage of engaged employees increases from 7 per cent to 55 per cent [9]
Customers with disability
- People with disability are three times as likely to avoid an organisation and twice as likely to dissuade others because of an organisation’s negative diversity reputation. [10]
- 36 per cent of people with disability are often treated less favourably than customers without disability. [10]
- 28 per cent of people with disability have experienced discrimination by one or more of the organisations they’ve recently interacted with. [10]
- 1 in 3 people with disability report that their customer needs are often unmet. [10]
- 62 per cent of SME’s have not done anything in the past 12 months to make it easier for customers with disability. For almost half of these, there is a perception of not being asked to. “We have received no specific requests.” [11]
- Of the Australians with disability aged 15 and over, almost one-third (33.1 per cent) avoided situations because of their disability. One of the most common situations avoided were going to shops, banks etc. (34.3 per cent). [10]
Discrimination
Disability discrimination occurs when people with disability are treated less fairly than others because of their disability [1]
In 2022, among people with disability aged 15 years and over (living in households):
- one in ten (9.9 per cent) had experienced discrimination [1]
- one in ten females (10.6 per cent) and one in eleven males (9.1 per cent) experienced discrimination [1]
- almost one in five young people aged 15-34 years (17.6 per cent) experienced discrimination, compared with 3.9 per cent of those aged 65 years and over [1]
- LGBTQ+ people with disability were almost three times more likely to experience discrimination compared with heterosexual people with disability (27.7 per cent compared with 8.7 per cent). [1]
Experience of discrimination varied by severity of limitation:
- almost one in five (19.0 per cent) people with a profound or severe limitation experienced discrimination
6.8 per cent of people with a moderate or mild limitation experienced discrimination. [1]
These rates were similar in 2018.
Of those with disability who experienced discrimination, the common sources of discrimination were:
- service and hospitality staff (38.6 per cent)
- strangers in the street (30.3 per cent)
- their employer (24.5 per cent). [1]
Of those with disability in the labour force (aged 15-64 years) who experienced discrimination, common sources of discrimination were:
- their employer (40.2 per cent)
- work colleagues (37.7 per cent)
These rates were similar in 2018. [1]
Older statistics show that in a 12 month period in 2018, among people aged 15–64 with disability living in households:
- 4 in 9 (44 per cent) avoided situations because of their disability (2018) [12]
Some experienced barriers to accessibility which could be a form of indirect discrimination:
- 3 in 10 (30 per cent) of those who had challenges with mobility or communication had difficulty accessing buildings or facilities (2018).
- 1 in 6 (16 per cent) of those who leave home had difficulty using public transport, and a further 11% were unable to use public transport at all (2018). [12]
Improving employment rates and outcomes
Key findings and recommendations from a report published by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre in March 2024 [13]
- For people with disability, having a university degree is associated with an additional 16.2 per cent higher probability of being in work over and above the 18.2 per cent effect observed for people without disability. [13]
- For full-time workers with disability, typically 25 per cent will have left full-time employment one year later, compared to just 10 per cent for full-time workers without disability. [13]
- By industry, the health care and social assistance sector has the largest proportion of people with disability in its workforce (21.7 per cent). [13]
Agriculture, forestry and fishing has the highest over-representation of workers with disability, at 6.3 percentage points above their overall share in the workforce. - Mining has by far the highest under-representation (6.4 percentage points). [13]
- Modelling suggests being a NDIS client reduces a person’s chance of being in employment and reduces their chance of transitioning into work by around seven percentage points. [13]
- Twenty-six per cent of people with disability report transport issues as a barrier to finding work, compared to 16 per cent of jobseekers without disability. [13]
- Thirty-five per cent of carers have a work-limiting disability themselves, compared to 15 per cent of people without caring roles. [13]