• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

OLDER PEOPLE - KEY FINDINGS

This survey collects information from people with disability, carers and older people to determine not only how ageing impacts on a person's life, but how the combination of age and other factors affect the quality of life a person experiences. In the 2012 SDAC, older people are defined as those aged 65 years or over.

There were around 3.3 million older Australians in 2012, representing one in every seven people (14%) (Table 3). This proportion has risen from 13.3% in 2009 and 12.6% in 2003. Around half of Australia's older population (1.7 million or 7.5% of Australians) have a disability (Table 3). As such, older people with disability now form a larger part of the Australian population than previously measured, having represented only 7.1% and 7.0% of the population in the previous two surveys in 2009 and 2003.

The 2012 SDAC found that:

• Ninety per cent of older people lived in a private dwelling, such as a house, flat or home unit, with nearly three quarters (71%) living with others. For people aged 80 years or more, 77% lived in a private dwelling, with over half (58%) living with others. (Table 6)
• Around 1.4 million older people needed assistance with at least one activity because of disability or age (42%). (Table 27)
• 87% of older Australians reported having a long-term health condition. The long-term health conditions most frequently reported as causing older people the most problems were arthritis (16%), hypertension (11%) and back problems (9.4%).
• One third of older people reported needing assistance with personal activities (29%), most commonly health care (25%) and mobility tasks (18%). Property maintenance (23%) and household chores (18%) were other activities that older people needed assistance with. (Table 27)
• When comparing those with disability, older people were more likely to have their needs for assistance met in full, than those aged less than 65 years (64% compared with 58%). (Table 14)
• A government pension or allowance was the main source of income for two million older Australians (65%). (Table 8)