People with disability in Australia 2024

Disability affects many people, directly or indirectly. It may be a life-altering event or experience. It may have large or small effects on people's daily lives. Increasingly, disability is recognised as something that affects most people, to varying degrees and at different life stages. Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions, all of which can interact with a person's health condition(s) and environmental and/or individual factors to hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

Capturing the diverse experiences of people with disability in a reporting context is challenging. People with disability are not a homogeneous group. They have different types and levels of disability; come from all demographic and socioeconomic groups; and interact, in varying degrees, with every aspect of life in Australia across a multitude of social policy and program areas. This diversity is compounded by differing understandings of what disability is and how best to capture it in data.

This 2024 update introduces new reporting based on data from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The update also includes new content about the experiences of people with disability when accessing key services, and employers’ attitudes and barriers to employing people with disability, using data from a new Australia’s Disability Strategy Survey – Share with us, conducted in 2022.