Need for assistance with activities
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Need for assistance
In 2022, 61% of people with disability living in households needed assistance with at least one activity of daily living.
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Activities where assistance is needed
The most common activities where assistance is needed are property maintenance and health care (30% each for people with disability living in households in 2022).
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Schooling or employment restriction
In 2022, 1 in 2 (51%) people with disability aged 5 and over living in households had a schooling or employment restriction.
Introduction
People with disability may need support to do daily activities, live more independently, and fully participate in social and economic life. While broad supports include long-term planning and skill-building, this page focuses on needs for specific, task-based assistance provided by another person. This may involve someone helping a person with disability to perform certain activities, or being there while the person with disability performs the activity. Understanding these needs can support better service planning and more inclusive communities.
Data note
Data on this page are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2022 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). More information about the SDAC, including the concepts of disability, disability groups, and remoteness categories used by the SDAC can be found in Data sources.
Need for assistance with activities of daily living
Three in 5 (61% or 3.2 million) people with disability living in households need assistance with at least one of 10 activities of daily living (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c). Assistance is most commonly needed with property maintenance, health care, cognitive or emotional tasks, and mobility (Table ACTIVITIES.1).
Table ACTIVITIES.1: Activities people with disability need assistance with, by place of residence, 2022 (%)
Activity | Living in households | Living in cared accommodation | All people with disability |
|---|---|---|---|
Self-care | 17.4 | 95.4 | 19.9 |
Mobility | 24.7 | 92.3 | 26.9 |
Communication | 13.6 | 56.6 | 15.1 |
Cognitive or emotional tasks | 24.8 | 85.0 | 26.8 |
Health care | 29.6 | 97.8 | 31.8 |
Reading or writing | 8.5 | 82.3 | 10.9 |
Household chores | 24.2 | – | – |
Private transport | 20.1 | – | – |
Property maintenance | 30.1 | – | – |
Meal preparation | 10.3 | – | – |
At least one of the above activities (%) | 60.5 | 99.3 | – |
Total number of people with disability | 5.3 million | 180,000 | 5.5 million |
Note: Data on need for assistance with household chores, private transport, property maintenance, and meal preparation are not collected for people with disability living in cared accommodation, as it is expected that the cared accommodation facility would provide these services to residents. Therefore, this table reports data on needs for assistance with these activities for people living in households only.
Source: AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c.
Place of residence
The SDAC collects data for people living in households (in the community) and in cared accommodation.
Households
In the SDAC, households refer to private dwellings including self-cared accommodation for the retired or aged, and other private dwellings, including houses, flats, home units, garages, tents and other structures used as private places of residence.
Cared accommodation
Cared accommodation is usually long term and may be institutional in style. In the SDAC, cared accommodation includes hospitals, residential aged care, cared components of retirement villages, aged care hostels, psychiatric institutions, and other homes (such as group homes for people with disability). To be included the person must have been, or is expected to be, a resident of the cared accommodation for 3 months or more. The accommodation must include all meals for its occupants and provide 24-hour access to assistance for personal and/or medical needs (ABS 2024b).
The majority of people with disability live in households
- Almost all of the 3.2 million people aged under 65 with disability live in households; only 0.3% (around 9,000) live in cared accommodation.
- 92% (or 2.1 million) of people aged 65 and over with disability live in households and the remaining 7.5% (or 172,000) live in cared accommodation (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
People with disability living in cared accommodation tend to have much higher assistance needs than those living in households (Table ACTIVITIES.1). Since cared accommodation facilities provide home-care services to residents, the SDAC does not collect data on need for assistance with chores, property maintenance, meal preparation or private transport for people in cared accommodation. Almost all (99%, or 180,000) people with disability living in cared accommodation need some assistance with a least one of the remaining 6 activities of daily living (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
People with severe or profound disability are more likely to need assistance than those with other disability status:
- Among people living in households, 97% (or 1.8 million) of people with severe or profound disability need assistance with at least one of 10 activities of daily living. This compares with 41% (or 1.4 million) of people with other disability status.
- Among residents of cared accommodation, all (100% or 176,000) people with severe or profound disability need assistance with at least one of 6 activities of daily living. Almost all people with disability living in cared accommodation have severe or profound disability (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
For people with disability living in households, need for assistance with any of the 10 activities of daily living varies by sex and age group (Figure ACTIVITIES.1):
- Young people with disability (aged under 15) have higher assistance needs than other age groups. In the under 15 group, almost 3 in 4 (72% or 371,000) need assistance with activities. This is even though this age group is not asked about needs for assistance with home-care activities (such as household chores), private transport, or reading and writing.
- Among people with disability aged 65 and over, 68% (or 1.4 million) needed assistance. Among those aged 15–64, just over half (53% or 1.4 million) needed assistance.
- On average, females with disability are more likely to need assistance with activities than males.
However, for males and females the age groups most in need of assistance are different:
- Among males with disability, those aged under 15 had the highest need for assistance. In this age group, 76% (or 245,000) needed assistance with activities, compared with 50% (or 626,000) of those aged 15–64, and 59% (or 603,000) of those aged 65 and over.
- For females with disability, those aged 65 and over were the most likely to need assistance. In this age group, 76% (or 832,000) needed assistance with activities, compared with 64% (or 126,000) of those under 15, and 55% (or 770,000) of those aged 15–64 (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
The need for assistance also varies between disability groups (Figure ACTIVITIES.1). The proportion of people with disability living in households who need assistance with at least one activity of daily living is:
- 83% (or 1.3 million) of those with psychosocial disability
- 79% (or 828,000) of those with learning and understanding disability
- 79% (or 254,000) of those with head injury, stroke or acquired brain injury
- 66% (or 2.3 million) of those with physical disability
- 63% (or 1.1 million) of those with sensory or speech disability (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c; Figure ACTIVITIES.1).
Figure ACTIVITIES.1: Need for assistance with activities among people with disability living in households, by selected characteristics, 2022
Bar chart showing proportions of people with disability who need assistance with at least one of 10 activities of daily living, by disability and demographic characteristics.
Notes:
- The numbers reported in this chart are based on the maximum of 10 activities. Not all activities are applicable to all people with disability. Data on need for assistance with health care are not collected for people under 5, and data on need for assistance with reading or writing, household chores, private transport, property maintenance, and meal preparation are not collected for people under 15. People whose disability is not severe or profound, by definition, have no need for assistance with core activities (self-care, mobility, and communication) and therefore have no data reported for these activities.
- The CALD cohort includes people born outside of main English-speaking countries and people who mainly speak a language other than English at home.
People with disability who are more likely to need assistance with activities include:
- those under 15 years of age, as well as those aged 65 and over
- females
- people with severe or profound disability
- people with learning and understanding or psychosocial disability.
Types of activities where assistance is needed
The types of support people with disability (living in households) need vary according to their age, sex, severity of disability and other characteristics (Figure ACTIVITIES.2):
- As mentioned above, people with disability aged under 15 have higher overall needs for assistance with activities than those aged 15–64. In particular, cognitive or emotional tasks are the area where 57% (or 296,000) people with disability in this age group require assistance.
- For the 15–64 age group, cognitive or emotional tasks remain the most common activity where assistance is needed, with 29% (or 763,000) of people in this age group needing assistance with this type of activity. This is followed by property maintenance, with 24% (or 630,000) of people needing assistance.
- For people with disability aged 65 and over, assistance is most commonly needed with property maintenance (46% or 969,000) and health care (42% or 899,000).
- Females are more likely than males to need assistance with property maintenance (37% of females and 23% of males with disability) and household chores (30% of females and 18% of males). Males are somewhat more likely than females to need assistance with communication (16% of males and 11% of females with disability).
- People with severe or profound disability are much more likely to need assistance across all individual activities than people with other disability status. For instance, 58% (or 1.1 million) of people with severe or profound disability need assistance with health care, compared with 15% (or 500,000) of those with disability status other than profound or severe.
- People with psychosocial disability, or learning and understanding disability, are more likely to need assistance with cognitive or emotional tasks. Six in 10 (59% or 903,000) people with psychosocial disability and 58% (or 610,000) of those with learning and understanding disability need assistance with these tasks.
- First Nations people with disability are more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to need assistance with cognitive or emotional tasks, and with communication. Four in 10 (39%) First Nations people with disability need assistance with cognitive or emotional tasks, compared with 24% of non-Indigenous people. One in 5 (21%) First Nations people with disability need assistance with communication, compared with 13% of non-Indigenous people with disability.
- People with disability who come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are more likely to need assistance across a range of activities, including self-care, mobility, health care, and home-care tasks such as property maintenance or chores. At the same time, non-CALD people with disability are more likely to need assistance with cognitive or emotional tasks than people with disability from CALD backgrounds (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
Figure ACTIVITIES.2: Activities where assistance is needed, for people with disability living in households, by activity and selected characteristics, 2022
Multi-view bar chart showing proportions of people with disability who need assistance with each of 10 activities of daily living, by disability and demographic characteristics.
Notes:
- The numbers reported in this chart are based on the maximum of 10 activities. Not all activities are applicable to all people with disability. Data on need for assistance with health care are not collected for people under 5, and data on need for assistance with reading or writing, household chores, private transport, property maintenance, and meal preparation are not collected for people under 15.
- People with disability status other than severe or profound, by definition, have no need for assistance with and no data reported for core activities (self-care, mobility, and communication).
- The CALD cohort includes people born outside of main English-speaking countries and people who mainly speak a language other than English at home.
Needs for assistance with specific activities vary among people with disability depending on disability characteristics and demographic factors such as age, sex, and cultural diversity.
Schooling and employment restrictions
What is an employment or schooling restriction?
Having a schooling or employment restriction means a person with disability experiences some degree of difficulty, requires the assistance of another person, or needs aids or special equipment to participate in education or employment.
In 2022, 1 in 2 (51%, or 2.7 million) people with disability aged 5 and over living in households had a schooling or employment restriction. This was higher for those aged under 65 (67%, or 2.1 million) than for those aged 65 and over (28%, or 599,000) (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
For people with disability aged 5–64 living in households:
- those with severe or profound disability were more likely to have schooling or employment restrictions – 89% (or 909,000) compared with 56% (or 1.2 million) of those with other disability status
- males and females had similar rates of restriction – 68% (or 1.0 million) of males and 65% (or 1.0 million) of females
- among people with psychosocial disability, 84% (or 985,000) had a schooling or employment restriction, as did 84% (or 688,000) of people with learning and understanding disability (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024c).
Where can I find out more?
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2024a) Disability, ageing and carers, Australia: summary of findings, 2022, ABS, accessed 6 November 2025.
ABS (2024b) Disability, ageing and carers, Australia: summary of findings methodology, 2022, ABS, accessed 8 April 2026.
ABS (2024c) Microdata and TableBuilder: Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia, ABS, AIHW analysis of detailed microdata, accessed 11 February 2025.