Prevalence of chronic conditions

Healthy throughout life

Metric

Proportion of people with one or more selected chronic health conditions

Why this matters

Chronic conditions are an ongoing cause of ill health, disability and can limit the extent to which people can enjoy their lives, making them an important measure of national health and wellbeing in Australia.

Chronic conditions generally have long-lasting and persistent effects and include conditions such as coronary heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Progress

The prevalence of chronic conditions is increasing in Australia.

In 2022, for people of all ages:

50% had one or more selected chronic conditions, an increase from 47% in 2017-18 and 42% in 2007-08
22% had two or more selected chronic conditions, an increase from 20% in 2017-18 and 17% in 2007-08.

This increasing trend is associated with a number of factors, including the prevalence of modifiable risk factors, the fact that people are living longer, and that improvements in the treatment and management of chronic conditions have extended life expectancies.

Differences across groups

In 2022:

females were more likely to have at least one selected chronic condition than males (52% compared to 47%)
almost one in three (28%) people living in areas of most disadvantage had two or more selected chronic conditions, compared to one in eight (16%) of those living in areas of least disadvantage.

Proportion of people with one or more selected chronic conditions(a)(b)
	Males (%)	Females (%)	Persons (%)
2007–08	40.5	43.9	42.2
2011–12	40.8	43.9	42.4
2014–15	44	49	46.5
2017–18	45.5	49.1	47.3
2022	47.4	52.3	49.9

Proportion of people with one or more selected chronic conditions(a)(b)

["","Males","Females","Persons"]

[["2007\u201308","2011\u201312","2014\u201315","2017\u201318","2022"],[[40.5],[40.799999999999997],[44],[45.5],[47.399999999999999]],[[43.899999999999999],[43.899999999999999],[49],[49.100000000000001],[52.299999999999997]],[[42.200000000000003],[42.399999999999999],[46.5],[47.299999999999997],[49.899999999999999]]]

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Selected chronic conditions consists of arthritis, asthma, back problems (dorsopathies), cancer (malignant neoplasms), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus, heart, stroke and vascular disease, kidney disease, mental and behavioural conditions and osteoporosis. Includes persons who have a current health condition which has lasted, or is expected to last, for 6 months or more; except for persons reporting diabetes mellitus and/or heart, stroke and vascular disease which are included irrespective of whether the condition is current and/or long-term. Multiple conditions belonging to the same condition type (e.g. mental and behavioural conditions) are treated as the one condition. For example, a person with anxiety and depression (and no other chronic condition) is treated as having one selected chronic condition.
Some data for years prior to 2022 was obtained through a custom analysis of the National Health Survey 2007-08, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2017-18.

Data Source

ABS National Health Survey 2022, Table 15.3

Disaggregation

Further information about how the prevalence of chronic conditions differs across groups is available in ABS National Health Survey 2022.

Disaggregation available includes:

Age
Sex
Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage
Remoteness
Comorbidity.