How common are neurological conditions in Australia?
The best current estimates for how common neurological conditions are in Australia come from self-reported data from the National Health Survey (NHS) 2022 (ABS 2023a) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Underestimating prevalence of neurological conditions and the prevalence of dementia in Australia
For prevalence estimates, this report uses the NHS condition codes listed under the category of “Diseases of the nervous system”, in line with the International Statistical Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10). This means that some neurological conditions are not included in the prevalence statistics reported here.
For example, only 3 types of dementia are categorised by the NHS and the ICD-10 under “Diseases of the nervous system”, with other types of dementia categorised elsewhere. Therefore, the numbers reported here do not account for all the different types of dementia. For prevalence estimates that include all of the variants of dementia as a combined category, see AIHW’s Dementia in Australia report. See the dropdown box below, labelled “Limitations of prevalence estimates from NHS”, for more details on how prevalence is underestimated.
See the Data sources section of this report for more details on the condition codes used for reporting from the National Health Survey.
Based on self-reported data from the NHS 2022 (ABS 2023a):
- an estimated 2.2 million (8.7%) Australians were living with long-term neurological conditions (Figure 1) – almost 1 in 11 Australians
- the most common neurological condition was migraine, with 1.7 million (6.6%) Australians estimated to be living with it as a long-term condition
- females (about 11%) were almost twice as likely as males (6.1%) to be living with a long-term neurological condition (Figure 1), equating to about 1 in 9 females and 1 in 16 males
- in almost every age-group, a higher percentage of females than males were living with neurological conditions (Figure 1)
- the sex difference is predominantly due to migraine, with females (9.2%) being more than twice as likely as males (4.1%) to be living with this as a long-term condition
- Tasmania (12%) had the highest percentage of people living with a neurological condition, whereas the Northern Territory (6.1%) had the lowest percentage – out of all the states and territories of Australia in 2022, Tasmania had the oldest population (median age of 41.8 years, with 20.9% of the population being 65 years or older) and the Norther Territory had the youngest population (median age of 33.5 years, with 9% of the population being 65 years or older) (ABS 2023c)
an estimated 84% of people living with a neurological condition are living with multimorbidity (defined as living with 2 or more chronic conditions at the same time) (AIHW 2025).
Figure 1: Percentage and number of Australians living with neurological conditions, by sex and age-group
This visualisation shows that the percentage of Australians living with neurological conditions is higher for females than males in almost every age-group.
| Sex | All ages | 0–14 | 15–24 | 25–34 | 35–44 | 45–54 | 55–64 | 65–74 | 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persons | 2.2 million | 60600 | 204000 | 421000 | 396000 | 416000 | 317000 | 219000 | 169000 |
| Females | 1.4 million | 21000 | 133000 | 267000 | 266000 | 302000 | 216000 | 133000 | 89100 |
| Males | 7.7 million | 35200 | 61400 | 152000 | 130000 | 120000 | 95900 | 87100 | 77800 |
| Sex | All ages | 0–14 | 15–24 | 25–34 | 35–44 | 45–54 | 55–64 | 65–74 | 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persons | 8.7% | 1.3% | 6.6% | 11.4% | 11.1% | 12.9% | 10.7% | 9.1% | 9.4% |
| Females | 11.2% | 0.9% | 8.8% | 14.4% | 14.7% | 18.4% | 14.1% | 10.6% | 9.3% |
| Males | 6.1% | 1.5% | 3.9% | 8.3% | 7.4% | 7.5% | 6.6% | 7.6% | 9.3% |
Notes:
- You can select whether the chart shows the percentage or number of Australians living with neurological conditions by changing the "measure" option at the top of the chart.
- Persons includes people whose sex at birth was neither male nor female. See National Health Survey methodology, 2022 for more information.
Socioeconomic and remoteness areas
Based on self-reported data from the NHS 2022 (ABS 2023b):
- the highest socioeconomic areas had the lowest percentage (7.2%) of people living with neurological conditions (percentages for the other 4 socioeconomic areas ranged between 8.0% and 9.5%) – age-standardisation did not change the relative positions of the different socioeconomic areas
- Major cities had a lower percentage (8.4%) of people living with neurological conditions than Outer regional and remote areas (10%), with Inner regional areas (9%) falling in between these – age-standardisation did not change the relative positions of the different remoteness areas.
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Even after age-standardisation, the highest socioeconomic areas had the lowest percentage of people living with neurological conditions.
Data tables on socioeconomic and remoteness figures are available for download under the Data section of this report.
Trends over time
The current prevalence estimates are higher than estimates from previous comparable surveys. Past estimates from previous NHSs range from 7.1% to 8% for all Australians (ABS 2002, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018). The questions have not changed substantially across the surveys, and so the higher estimates in the most recent NHS may reflect either that in this particular sample there were more people who had been diagnosed or that more people in Australia are being diagnosed with neurological conditions.
Sex differences have been present in all previous comparable surveys, with females being about twice as likely as males to be living with a neurological condition. Past estimates for all Australians range from 9.3% to 11% for females and from 4.7% to 5.3% for males (ABS 2002, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018).
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Sex differences have remained stable over time, with females about twice as likely as males to be living with neurological conditions since at least 2001, both among all Australians and among First Nations people.
Canada and England also use national household surveys to estimate prevalence of some neurological conditions.
Canada (Statistics Canada 2012)
- An estimated 11% of the population of Canada were living with long-term (at least 6 months) neurological conditions in 2010–11, compared with 7.4% of Australians in 2011–12 (ABS 2012).
- Females (over 14%) were almost twice as likely as males (7.6%) to be living with a long-term neurological condition in 2010–11, similar to findings in Australia.
England (NHS England 2024)
- About 4.5% of the population were living with long-term (at least 12 months) neurological conditions in 2022.
- Females (5.3%) were more likely than males (3.6%) to be living with a long-term neurological condition.
The lower estimate for England may be due to the survey asking about conditions lasting at least 12 months rather than 6 months. Other factors such as differences in self-reporting, survey design, diagnostic awareness and ages of the populations may also contribute to variation and should be considered when interpreting international comparisons.
The NHS will underestimate the prevalence of neurological conditions in Australia for 4 main reasons.
First, the NHS does not include information about people living in non-private dwellings, such as residential aged care facilities, hospitals or prisons. The prevalence estimates will therefore exclude people living with some long-term health conditions. For example, AIHW's Dementia in Australia report estimated that in 2021–22, about 54% of Australians or 131,000 people in permanent residential aged care were living with dementia. These people would be excluded in the prevalence estimates from the NHS.
Second, for prevalence estimates, this report uses the NHS condition codes listed under the category of “Diseases of the nervous system”, in line with the International Statistical Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10), which differs from the WHO classification of neurological conditions (see Intersectoral global action plan on epilepsy and other neurological disorders). For example, whereas the WHO includes autism spectrum disorder among neurological conditions, the NHS classifies this condition (condition code 140501) under mental and behavioural conditions. As another example, the WHO classifies stroke as a neurological condition, whereas the NHS classifies stroke (condition code 180401) as a disease of the circulatory system. Similarly, the NHS includes only 3 specific types of dementia (frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s disease, condition codes 150401, 150402 and 150403, respectively) under the category of neurological conditions, with dementia more generally (condition code 140101) listed under mental and behavioural conditions. Therefore, most Australians living with dementia, estimated by the Dementia in Australia report to be about 411,100 people in 2023, would be excluded from the NHS prevalence estimates for neurological conditions. For more information on the NHS condition codes used to estimate prevalence in this report, see Table 6 in the Data sources section of this report. For more information on the NHS condition codes and classifications, see the ‘Health Conditions’ sheet of the Data item list, downloadable from National Health Survey, 2022.
Third, the NHS defines long-term conditions as those that have lasted or are likely to last at least 6 months. This means that neurological conditions that are episodic and where the episodes occur less frequently than every 6 months may not be included in the prevalence estimates. For example, people who have a migraine episode every 7 or more months would not be counted as having a long-term neurological condition. (Though people whose conditions are being managed by medication are included in the prevalence estimates.)
Fourth, the self-reported nature of the NHS data relies on survey respondents providing accurate information. Although self-reported data may lead to either over-reporting or under-reporting, under-reporting may be more likely. This is because conditions that are not specifically prompted for, that are undiagnosed or asymptomatic in early stages are likely to be under-reported. People may also misreport their condition. For example, people with migraine may mistake their condition for some other type of headache and not report having migraine.
As such, the NHS will underestimate the true prevalence of neurological conditions in Australia.
Furthermore, an individual’s tendency to self-report a condition can differ based on characteristics such as their age and cultural background and will influence results. Whether a condition is self-reported may also be influenced by characteristics of the condition, such as whether it is episodic or persistent in nature.
Moreover, most neurological conditions are rare (for example, Huntington’s disease and motor neurone disease) and household surveys such as NHS are unlikely to capture rarer conditions in their sampling strategies.
These data gap issues regarding neurological conditions need to be addressed to provide more accurate prevalence estimates. For example, future work can be done to classify conditions from the NHS in a way that is consistent with the Australian Burden of Disease Study, which includes the different types of dementia as neurological conditions.
Notwithstanding the data gap issues, the NHS provides recent data from Australian households considered to be representative of most of the Australian population. The use of recent Australian data with such a large coverage of the Australian population makes this the most reliable source for estimating the prevalence of long-term neurological conditions in Australia.
Moreover, using data from the NHS has further advantages. It allows for comparisons of prevalence over time and across different conditions given that they are recurring surveys which collect data for 72 conditions using similar methods. This further allows for an examination of co- and multi-morbidity. For example, the Multimorbidity in Australia report found that 84% of people with a neurological condition were living with more than one long-term condition (multimorbidity).
A systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 estimated that about 43% of people, globally, were living with a neurological condition in 2021 (Steinmetz et al. 2024).
The GBD 2021 (IHME 2025) estimated that almost 41% of Australians were living with a neurological condition in 2021.
However, although GBD 2021 uses data inputs from Australia for some neurological conditions, for several neurological conditions data inputs from Australia are not included due to limited availability or compatibility of national datasets. For example, for migraine and headaches, which are some of the most common neurological conditions, GBD 2021 relies on data from other countries and mathematical modelling strategies to estimate prevalence for Australia.
Moreover, part of the large discrepancy between the Australian estimates from GBD 2021 (41%) and NHS 2022 (8.7%) is likely due to the latter being focused on long-term conditions that have lasted or are likely to last at least 6 months, whereas GBD 2021 includes episodic conditions. This means that people who have had a migraine or headaches in the past year but lasting less than 6 months would be included in the GBD 2021 prevalence estimate but not in the NHS estimate.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2002) National Health Survey: Summary of Results, 2001, ABS website, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2006) National Health Survey: Summary of Results, ABS, Australian Government, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2009) Table 3: Long-term conditions [data set], National Health Survey: Summary of Results, 2007-2008 (Reissue), ABS website, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2012) Table 3: Long-term conditions by age then sex – Australia [data set], Australian Health Survey: First Results, 2011-12, ABS website, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2015) Table 3: Long-term health conditions - Australia [data set], National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15, ABS website, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2018) Table 3: Long-term health conditions - Australia [data set], National Health Survey: First results, 2017-18 financial year, ABS website, accessed 5 May 2025.
ABS (2023a) Table 3: Long-term health conditions, by age and sex [data set], National Health Survey, 2022, ABS website, accessed 1 April 2025.
ABS (2023b) Microdata: National Health Survey, 2022, AIHW analysis of detailed microdata, accessed May 2025.
ABS (2023c) Median age, sex ratio and broad age groups, by SA2 and above, 2022 [data set], Regional population by age and sex, 2022, ABS website, accessed 10 November 2025.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2025) Multimorbidity in Australia, AIHW website, accessed 15 July 2025.
IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) (2025). GBD Results [data set], IHME website, accessed 5 May 2025.
National Health Service (NHS) England (2024) HSE 2022 Adult health tables (Table 2) [data set], Health Survey for England 2022, Part 2: Data tables - NHS England Digital, NHS England website, accessed 5 May 2025.
Statistics Canada (2012) Table 13-10-0467-01 Neurological conditions in household population [data set], Statistics Canada website, accessed 5 May 2025.
Steinmetz JD et al. (2024) ‘Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’, The Lancet Neurology, 23(4):344–381, doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00038-3.