The basic definition of a disability is a condition that restricts a person’s mental, physical, sensory or mobility functions. Disabilities are usually caused by accidents, traumas, genetics or diseases. A disability can be temporary, permanent, total, partial, visible or invisible. Around 1 in 6 people in Australia have a disability. That’s about 4.4 million people! This number is also known as the “disability prevalence”. 22% of the people in Australia have a long-term health condition but no disability, and the remaining 60% percent have no disability or any long-term health conditions according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

What’s Disability Prevalence?

Disability prevalence is the number or the proportion of people living with a disability at any given time. Prevalence rates can be age specific, so the population with different ages can be easily compared. Factors such as increased or decreased life expectancy, or survival rates for specific health conditions can affect disability prevalence.

Intellectual Disability Statistics

People with an intellectual disability cover over half a million of the people in Australia. The majority, about 60%, of those people have a severe or intense limitation in “core” activities of daily living. People with intellectual disabilities also include a major group of people that benefit from disability support services and the NDIS. People with intellectual disabilities usually encounter special challenges throughout their lives. They usually have learning difficulty and they can’t adapt to change as fast as other people usually do. They also usually need assistance from home to school, and from school to adulthood. You can support people with intellectual disability by helping them be a part of the community.

Women With Disabilities Australia

Men and women obviously have different health and welfare needs, and concerns related to their biological sex. This can be illustrated by different rates of injuries, accidents, illness, and mortality rates. Compared with males, females have a longer life expectancy. But they’re more likely to have multiple chronic conditions. Also, the leading cause of death for females is dementia and Alzheimer. There are of course special clinics and disability support service providers for women.

Child Disability Statistics

A healthy childhood is really important for a healthy development into adulthood.. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2015, 7.5% of the children aged between 0-14 had some level of disability and about half of those had a severe level of disability. Also, disability is more common among boys than girls in childhood;the most common types of disabilities for children were intellectual and sensory/speech related disabilities such as autism or down syndrome. Proper schooling and mentoring is really important for disabled children, as their disability can be described in terms of core activity limitations and having difficulty participating in social events. Disabled kids might need special assistance or equipment to participate in ordinary school lessons, or they might need to go to a special school.

Disability Discrimination Statistics

People with disabilities usually have a harder time finding and keeping their jobs. Most of them usually encounter discrimination at one point in thier lives. People aged between 15-64 years with a disability have about twice as high unemployment rates than people without a disability. Almost 1 in 5 people with a disability aged between 15 and 24 experience discrmination. Nearly on half of these cases, the source of the discrimination was the employer. On the other hand, 35% of the people with disabilities are managers and professionals. People with disabilities are also three times more likely to avoid an organisation or a meeting. Nearly 30% of the people with disabilities have experienced discrimination by one or more organisations they have attended.

How Does Australia’s Disability Statistics Compare to Other Countries in The World?

It’s important to compare welfare and disability data between countries. Comparing helps with planning, policy and decision making for countries and service providers. It is also of interest to researchers, journalists and the general public to compare Australian disability statistics globally. Australian health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE for short) at birth is 73 years. That’s one of the highest of all OECD countries, ranking 7 out of 36. On the other hand, while 1 out of 6 people have a disability in Australia, in the United States of America 1 out of 4 people have a disability. All in all, Australians report very high life satisfaction, with a score of 7.3 with a scale from 0 to 10.

ADACare is an NDIS approved disability service provider in Sydney. Reach us for a free consultation today.