2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers: results

This publication contains the first results from the 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. This will be followed by a Summary of Findings in late 2016.

Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: First Results, 2015
29 April 2016
This publication is the first release of data from the 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). It presents key information about disability prevalence in Australia as well as data about older Australians (those aged 65 years and over). Data is also included about people with disability who reported that they had experienced discrimination. Future releases will provide greater detail about these groups and important information about carers ...
Experience of discrimination for people with disability
The 2015 SDAC introduced a new disability discrimination module designed to estimate the prevalence of discrimination for those with disability and identify the nature of this discrimination. Included in this initial release of SDAC data is information about Australians with disability who were living in households, aged 15 years and over, and their experience with discrimination because of their disability.

In the last 12 months:

• Almost one in 12 Australians with disability (281,100 people or 8.6%) reported they had experienced discrimination or unfair treatment because of their disability. 
• Rates of reported discrimination were similar for men (8.3%) and women (8.9%). 
• Young people with disability (aged 15-24 years) were more likely to report the experience of discrimination (20.5%) than those aged 65 years and over (2.1%). 
• The source of discrimination was an employer for almost half of those aged 15 to 64 years with disability who were unemployed (46.9%) or employed full-time (46.2%) and just over one third (34.6%) of those employed part-time, at the time of the survey. 
• Over one third (35.1%) of women and over one quarter (28.1%) of men aged 15 years and over had avoided situations because of their disability. 
• Older people (aged 65 and over) were less likely to avoid situations because of their disability (20.1%) than younger people.