People with disability in Australia 2026

Introduction

One way to measure health and wellbeing is to ask people how they feel about their health, their state of mind and their life in general. This page looks at the health of Australians with disability based on survey tools such as:

• self-assessed health status
• Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)
• bodily pain
• satisfaction with personal health and life in general.

This page also looks at how general health, pain, psychological distress, and life and health satisfaction vary for different groups of people with disability.

General health

People with disability generally report worse health than people without disability. Around 1 in 3 (32%) adults (people aged 18 and over) with disability consider their health excellent or very good, compared with more than 2 in 3 (69%) adults without disability. 

This health gap has widened over the past decade. The proportion of adults with disability reporting excellent or very good health fell from 35% in 2011–12 to 32% in 2022. At the same time, the proportion of adults without disability in excellent or very good health rose from 66% to 69% (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024).

Notes

1. Restricted to people aged 18 and over living in households.
2. People from CALD backgrounds are defined as those born outside of main English-speaking countries, and those who mainly speak a language other than English at home.
3. Numbers are rounded and randomly adjusted to protect confidentiality. Because of this, components may not add up to totals.
4. Some categories are not shown due to small sample numbers and to protect confidentiality.
   
   

Adults with disability – especially those with severe or profound disability – are more likely to report fair or poor health than adults without disability:

• 1 in 3 adults with disability (33%) rate their health as fair or poor. This is around 6 times the rate for adults without disability (5.6%).
• 2 in 3 adults with severe or profound disability (68%) assess their health as fair or poor. This is more than twice the rate for adults with other disability status (28%) and around 12 times the rate for adults without disability (5.6%) (Figure STATUS.1).

Women with disability are slightly more likely to rate their health as fair or poor (35%) than men with disability (31%). Self-assessed health also varies among adults with disability by age, disability group, cultural background, partnered status, and education (Figure STATUS.1):

• 34% of adults with disability aged 18–64 rate their health as excellent or very good, compared with 28% among those aged 65 and over
• 32% of adults with sensory or speech disability rate their health as excellent or very good, compared with 19% of those with psychosocial disability, 22% of those with learning and understanding disability, and 26% of those with physical disability
• 23% of adults with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds rate their health as excellent or very good, compared with 34% among those from non-CALD backgrounds
• 35% of adults in a partnered relationship report excellent or very good health, compared with 28% of those without a partner
• 23% of adults with Year 10 or 11 as their highest level of education rate their health as excellent or very good, compared with 42% of those with a Bachelor degree or higher (ABS 2024).

Mental health

Psychological distress is an important indicator of the overall mental health of a population. Signs of psychological distress can include nervousness, agitation, psychological fatigue and depression. This report uses the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) as the measure of psychological distress. A person experiencing psychological distress will not necessarily be experiencing mental illness, however there is a strong correlation between higher scores on the K10 and the presence of depressive or anxiety disorders (Andrews and Slade 2001).

Low levels of psychological distress generally indicate that the person has little or no stress and is likely to be well. People with disability are less likely to have low distress levels than those without disability. Less than half (46%) of adults with disability have a low level of psychological distress, compared with almost three-quarters (73%) of adults without disability (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024).

The proportion of adults with low psychological distress level declined for both people with and without disability over the past decade, indicating an increase in psychological distress. For people with disability, the proportion who experience low distress fell from 56% in 2011–12 to 46% in 2022 (and from 79% to 73%, for people without disability) (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024).

Notes

1. Restricted to people aged 18 and over living in households who were present at interview.
2. People from CALD backgrounds are defined as those born outside of main English-speaking countries, and those who mainly speak a language other than English at home.
3. Numbers are rounded and randomly adjusted to protect confidentiality. Because of this, components may not add up to totals. 
4. Some categories are not shown due to small sample numbers and to protect confidentiality.
   
   

In general, adults with disability (especially those with severe or profound disability) experience higher levels of psychological distress than those without disability (Figure STATUS.2):

• 27% of adults with disability experience high or very high psychological distress. This is 4 times as high as those without disability (6.7%).
• 45% of adults with severe or profound disability experience high or very high psychological distress, compared with 25% of those with other disability status (Figure STATUS.2).

Among adults with disability, high or very high levels of psychological distress are more likely to be experienced by (Figure STATUS.2):

• women with disability (32%), compared with men with disability (22%)
• younger adults with disability (34% of those aged 18–64), compared with those aged 65 and over (15%). The proportions experiencing high or very high psychological distress are even higher for people with disability aged 18–24, at 55%.
• adults aged 18–64 who do not have a partner (42%), compared with those who are married or in a de facto relationship (29%)
• adults aged 18–64 with lower levels of education. Four in 10 people whose highest level of education is Year 12 (42%) or Year 10/11 (39%) experience high or very high psychological distress. This compares with 26% of those with Bachelor degree or above (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024).
• adults aged 18–64 who are not heterosexual. Half (49%) of those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or different sexual orientation experience high or very high psychological distress, compared with one-third (33%) of those who identify as heterosexual (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024).

Among disability groups, high or very high psychological distress is most common for adults with:

• psychosocial disability (66%)
• learning and understanding disability (62%) (Figure STATUS.2).

The least likely to experience high or very high psychological distress are adults with:

• sensory or speech disability (25%)
• physical disability (29%) (Figure STATUS.2).

Bodily pain

Adults with disability are more likely to have experienced any bodily pain (87%) within the last 4 weeks than those without disability (62%), and 8 times as likely to have experienced severe or very severe bodily pain (17% compared with 2.1%) (Figure STATUS.3).

Notes

1. Restricted to people aged 18 and over living in households.
2. People from CALD backgrounds are defined as those born outside of main English-speaking countries, and those who mainly speak a language other than English at home.
3. Numbers are rounded and randomly adjusted to protect confidentiality. Because of this, components may not add up to totals. 
4. Some categories are not shown due to small sample numbers and to protect confidentiality.

Among adults with disability:

• those with severe or profound disability are 3 times as likely (41%) to have experienced severe or very severe bodily pain within the last 4 weeks as those with other disability status (14%)
• women are more likely (19%) to have experienced severe or very severe bodily pain than men (14%)
• 16% of those with sensory or speech disability have experienced severe or very severe bodily pain, 21% of those with learning and understanding disability, 22% of those with physical restriction, and 25% of those with psychosocial disability (Figure STATUS.3).

Satisfaction with own health and life

Satisfaction with health

Based on 2021 HILDA data, almost 2 in 3 (65%) people aged 15 and over without disability are highly satisfied with their health. Among people with disability, less than 1 in 3 (29%) are highly satisfied (AIHW analysis of DSS and MIAESR 2022).

Satisfaction with health varies by age (Figure STATUS.4). People aged 15–24 with disability are the most likely to be highly satisfied (40%) and people aged 45–64 are the least likely (21%). People aged 65 and over with disability report relatively high satisfaction with their health (33% highly satisfied). This may be due to changing expectations of health with ageing, as declines in health may become more common and expected.

Of people with disability aged 15–64:

• males are more likely to be highly satisfied with their health (30%) than females (23%)
• those with severe or profound disability are less likely (14%) to be highly satisfied with their health than those with other disability status (28%)
• people with physical disability are less likely (18%) to be highly satisfied with their health than those with intellectual disability (37%) or sensory disability (31%) (AIHW analysis of DSS and MIAESR 2022).

Overall life satisfaction

About half (52%) of people with disability aged 15–64 are highly satisfied with their life overall. This is lower than for people without disability, of whom 70% are highly satisfied. People aged 65 and over with disability are more likely to be highly satisfied with their life (70%) than those with disability aged 15–64, but less likely than those aged 65 and over without disability (86%) (Figure STATUS.4; AIHW analysis of DSS and MIAESR 2022). 

Of people aged 15–64 with disability:

• females are as likely (52%) to be highly satisfied with their life as males (53%)
• those with severe or profound disability are less likely to be highly satisfied (42%) than people with other disability status (54%) (AIHW analysis of DSS and MIAESR 2022).