Overview Of Disability Data In Aotearoa New Zealand

An overview of disability data in Aotearoa New Zealand is a reference resource designed to support people who want to engage more with disability data but need guidance on what information is available.

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On this page

• About this report
• Disability prevalence
• Wellbeing and inclusion
• Participation in society
• Standard of living
• Services and support
• Data sources and glossary

About this report

We have selected regularly published indicators across four broad themes - wellbeing and inclusion; participation in society; standard of living; and services and support - that users can treat as a starting point when determining what disability data is available and how to use it.

In summarising information by theme, we also provide additional insights by drawing together data across multiple sources, allowing readers to better understand the experiences and outcomes of disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

An overview of disability data in Aotearoa New Zealand is available in Large Print, Audio, and Braille accessible formats. A summary of this report is also available in Large Print, Audio, Braille, Easy Read, and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Some links in this document may not have information in alternate formats.

Acknowledgements

Stats NZ would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, and representatives of the Disabled People's Organisations Coalition in producing this report.

We also thank everyone who provided their data to any of the referenced surveys. We are grateful for the willingness of disabled people to share their experiences, and the trust you place in us to help tell your stories.

Defining disability

"Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others." - United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

In New Zealand, disabled people are often identified in social surveys using questions based on the work of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG). There are several ways to frame disability and the way in which disabled people are identified in any given context depends on the reason for doing so.

Washington Group question sets differ by length and intended audience, but all identify disabled people based on how much difficulty they have in select functional domains (such as walking, seeing, or hearing).

The number and type of functional domains included in a survey will directly affect the number of people counted as disabled and can impact the outcomes we measure for that population. When using disability data, especially from multiple sources, it is important to be aware of how the disabled population has been identified and any inherent limitations of the measure.

From least to most comprehensive, the WG question sets used as the basis for identifying disability in adults in each of our data sources are as follows:

• WG Short Set on Functioning (WGSS) - used in the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS), Te Kupenga, 2023 Census, and the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS)
• WG Short Set on Functioning - Enhanced (WGSS-E) - used in the General Social Survey (GSS), Household Economic Survey (HES), and Household Income and Living Survey (HILS)
• Questions based on the WG Extended Set on Functioning (WGES) - used in the 2023 Household Disability Survey (2023 HDS).

The WG/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (WG-CFM) is also used by NZHS, HES, HILS and 2023 HDS to identify disability in children. To create a binary variable like disability status, a threshold must also be set for the level of difficulty that defines the boundary between disabled and non-disabled people. The decision about where to set this threshold in each functional domain directly affects the size and composition of the disabled population and, in New Zealand, is informed by Washington Group best practice.

Data sources has more detail on how disability is identified by source.

The 2023 HDS provides the best available national estimates about disabled people living in households because it uses a longer question set to identify disabled people - and is therefore more inclusive - than any other official survey. It is the only source of data on disability prevalence in New Zealand and because it is focused on disability, it can ask about topics that are relevant to disabled people but not the general public such as assistive devices and support needs.

Other surveys, which include fewer functional difficulty questions to identify disabled people, are still useful for comparing life situations of disabled and non-disabled people in domains like employment, housing, income, justice, health, and wellbeing. They allow for more regular and timely data to be collected between dedicated disability surveys like the HDS and can provide information about concepts not collected in the HDS.

Understanding sampling error

With the exception of 2023 Census data, the estimates in this report are produced using sample surveys weighted up to represent the whole population. Because a sample is only a portion of the population, different samples can produce different results: both compared with each other and what we might get if we surveyed everyone.

This variation is represented through sample errors. Sample errors are published alongside estimates and can be used to create upper and lower bounds for our confidence intervals (between which we are 95 percent certain the true value lies).

Sometimes, estimates which appear different have overlapping confidence intervals. This can mean that, from a statistical perspective, we cannot be confident that the two are genuinely different as opposed to simply appearing different due to our selected sample.

In producing this report, we used published sample errors to determine whether estimates significantly differed from one another. When we say results for disabled people are different from those of non-disabled people, this includes consideration of sample errors.

When new data is published, users may wish to update these indicators for their own use. If so, they should make sure to similarly consider updated sample errors.

A simple way to do this is to first take the smaller estimate and add its sample error to create an upper bound, then take the larger estimate and subtract its sample error to create a lower bound. If the upper bound of the smaller estimate is lower than the lower bound of the larger estimate, the estimates are significantly different.

This approach will be less sensitive than official determinations of statistical significance but will not risk accidentally identifying non-significant differences as significant.

Disability and age

Older people are more likely than younger people to be disabled. Older people have had longer to acquire functional difficulties from injury or disease, and ageing itself has a strong association with difficulty in functioning. As measured by the 2023 HDS, more than half of disabled people were aged 50 years or older, and a third were 65 years or older.

Outcomes for disabled people will therefore often be influenced by outcomes for older people. This can either mask or overstate disability gaps, depending on whether older people have better or worse outcomes than younger people in any given measure.

Where age appears to be impacting differences in outcomes for disabled and non-disabled populations and published data allows, results are presented using age-adjusted estimates or separately by age group to remove or reduce the effects of different age distributions. When the older age structure of the disabled population is not accounted for, users should be aware that this may impact differences in outcomes observed between disabled and non-disabled populations.

Intersectionality and change over time

Disability is just one facet of disabled people's lives, and disabled people have a diverse range of experiences and outcomes. It is important to consider results through an intersectional lens, reflecting not only whether someone is disabled, but also which functional domain they have difficulty in (sometimes referred to as type of activity limitation) as well as their gender, ethnicity, age, income, and other parts of their identity.

Disability indicator and activity limitations statistics from the census include information relating to demographics, work and education, housing, and families and households and are well suited to providing this intersectional perspective. However, the majority of our indicators are only publicly available at the national level, or with age and gender breakdowns.

This is because many of our primary sources of information on disabled people are sample surveys, which collect a range of demographic information but may not survey enough people to accurately and confidentially represent small populations of interest.

This report has focussed on the most recent data available from each source and does not include time-series analysis. This would introduce additional complexity that goes beyond the scope of this overview report. We recommend looking at each individual data source to see their historical data and any relevant caveats.

See Data sources for more information on other demographic data each source collects and/or publishes, and 'More information' section below for how to request customised data.

More information

This report is based entirely on publicly available data from a selection of key population surveys as at 1 January 2026. Where the same indicator is collected in multiple sources, up to two were chosen, but some concepts may be found in a range of sources.

• If you would like more detailed or different data from Stats NZ data sources included here, please reach out to Stats NZ's Customised data services.
• If you would like to access more information about the New Zealand Health Survey, please see Ministry of Health's New Zealand Health Survey webpage.
• If you would like to access more information about the New Zealand Crime and Victim Survey, please see Ministry of Justice's New Zealand Crime & Victims Survey (NZCVS) webpage.
• For a more extensive list of sources of disability data, see Whaikaha's Disability data and evidence resources.

Disability prevalence

The 2023 Household Disability Survey (HDS) provides official estimates of the prevalence of disability (how many people are disabled) among people living in New Zealand households.

Disability prevalence data is crucial for planning and providing effective disability support services and for a broad range of other public services. Prevalence estimates can also be used to provide important context for statistics from other sources on disparities in outcomes between disabled and non-disabled people (noting that other sources will represent different subsets of the disabled population than the HDS). Using data from the Household Disability Survey and the 2023 Census includes examples of how to use the HDS with another source of disability data to provide richer insights about Aotearoa New Zealand's disabled population.

Based on the 2023 HDS, 17 percent of people living in New Zealand households were disabled. This is a total of 851,000 disabled people. Of these, 98,000 were children (aged 0 to 14 years) and 753,000 were adults (aged 15 years or older).

Disability rates increased by age:

• 10 percent for those aged 0-14 years
• 12 percent for those aged 15-44 years
• 17 percent for those aged 45-64 years
• 35 percent for those aged 65 years and older.

Females had higher rates of disability prevalence than males for all age groups except children aged 0-14 years.

Figure 1

Disability rates differed by ethnic group. Māori had a disability rate of 21 percent, European people 18 percent, Pacific people 16 percent, and Asian people 9 percent.

Adjusting for age differences increased disability rates in these non-European ethnic groups, as they have younger population profiles than the total population and would therefore be expected to have lower rates of disability prevalence.

With age-adjustment, the Māori disability rate moved to 24 percent, the Pacific people rate to 21 percent, and the Asian rate to 13 percent.

The disability rate for the LGBTIQ+ population was 29 percent, significantly higher than the non-LGBTIQ+ rate of 17 percent. After age-adjustment, the LGBTIQ+ rate was 31 percent.

Household Disability Survey 2023 - findings, definitions, and design summary has more information on disability prevalence.

Wellbeing and inclusion

Disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand consistently report lower levels of wellbeing and inclusion across a range of indicators compared with non-disabled people.

While many disabled adults are satisfied with their life and rate their health positively, they are significantly less likely than non-disabled adults to report high life satisfaction, good health, or positive expectations for future wellbeing. Tāngata whaikaha Māori (Māori disabled people) aged 15 years and over rate the wellbeing of their whanau lower than Māori non-disabled adults. Disabled people were also less likely than non-disabled people to feel that the things they do in their life are worthwhile.

Social connection and emotional support are important contributors to wellbeing. While most disabled adults maintain contact with friends and family, they are more likely to experience unmet needs for connection and loneliness than non-disabled adults. Parents of disabled children report similar levels of emotional support to parents of non-disabled children, and public attitudes toward disabled people are broadly positive.

However, a lower sense of belonging to New Zealand, heightened feelings of unsafety in everyday situations, and increased experiences of discrimination and victimisation highlight the barriers disabled people face to full inclusion.

Wellbeing and social inclusion are important topics to monitor, and these indicators provide a good general evidence base. However, there are some gaps in the information available through key population surveys. One such gap is that these surveys tend to be designed for adult respondents, meaning information on child wellbeing is limited.

The Ministry of Social Development have commissioned the Youth Health and Wellbeing Survey 2025, which represents the merging and continuation of their 'What About Me?' and 'Youth2000' surveys. This will provide useful information on youth health and wellbeing trends, strengthening the availability of data for disabled young people, with plans to conduct this survey every three years.

Figure 2

Overall life satisfaction

Disabled adults are less likely than non-disabled adults to be highly satisfied with their life, though more are satisfied than not.

The 2023 HDS, which provides the best available estimates about disabled people living in New Zealand households, asked about overall life satisfaction on a scale from 0-10, where 10 meant 'completely satisfied' and 0 'completely dissatisfied'.

In 2023, 26 percent of disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) rated their life satisfaction very highly (9-10) and 42 percent highly (7-8). These estimates were lower than the 39 percent of non-disabled adults who had very high life satisfaction and 51 percent who had high life satisfaction.

The GSS uses the WGSS-E to monitor disparities between disabled people and non-disabled people. While this survey offers a more frequent indicator of outcome gaps, the WGSS-E will not identify all disabled people.

In 2023, as measured by the GSS, disabled adults (aged 15-64) were significantly more likely to have negative or neutral life satisfaction (0-6 on a ten-point scale) than non-disabled adults (47.4 percent compared with 17.8 percent).

Expectations of future wellbeing

Disabled adults had lower expectations for overall life satisfaction in the future than non-disabled adults.

As measured by the 2023 GSS with WGSS-E, this was collected using a scale from 0-10, where 10 meant they expected to be 'completely satisfied' and 0 'not at all satisfied'. Disabled adults (aged 15-64 years) reported a mean expected future life satisfaction rating of 7.6 and non-disabled adults had a mean rating of 8.3.

Among disabled adults, 23.3 percent reported negative or neutral future life satisfaction expectations (0-6), compared with 11.8 percent of non-disabled adults.

Worthwhile activities

While similar proportions of disabled and non-disabled people feel what they do in life is completely worthwhile, on average, disabled people rated their activities as less worthwhile compared with non-disabled people.

GSS 2023 asked people to rate whether the things they do in life are worthwhile on a scale from 0-10, in which 0 means 'not at all worthwhile' and 10 means 'completely worthwhile'. WGSS-E was used to produce results by disability status.

Overall, the mean rating for 'things you do in life are worthwhile' was lower for disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) at 7.2 than for non-disabled adults at 8.1.

A similar proportion of disabled adults and non-disabled adults felt their activities in life were 'completely worthwhile' - 18.7 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively. However, disabled adults were more likely than non-disabled adults to assign a low rating (0-4) to how worthwhile their activities are - 33.0 percent compared with 13.6 percent.

General health

Based on the 2023 HDS, disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) were more likely to rate their health poorly than non-disabled adults, though most disabled people considered themselves in good health.

The majority of both disabled and non-disabled adults rated themselves as being in good, very good, or excellent health in 2023. Among disabled adults, 13 percent considered themselves in poor health and 26 percent in fair health. Comparatively, 1 percent of non-disabled adults considered themselves in poor health and 5 percent in fair health.

As assessed by their carers, the majority of both disabled and non-disabled children aged 0-14 were in good, very good, or excellent health. However, a higher proportion of disabled children were in fair or poor general health than non-disabled children (13 percent compared with 2 percent).

The NZHS uses the WGSS and WG-CFM to monitor disparities between disabled and non-disabled people. While this survey offers a more frequent indicator of outcome gaps, the WGSS and WG-CFM will not identify all disabled people.

As measured by NZHS in the 2024/25 year, disabled people had significantly worse subjective health outcomes than non-disabled people.

Among disabled adults aged 15 and over, 61.4 percent rated their own health as 'good, very good, or excellent', compared with 89.0 percent of non-disabled adults. After adjusting for age and gender, disabled adults were significantly less likely (0.7 times as likely) to say they were in good, very good, or excellent health as non-disabled adults.

A parent or caregiver rated the health of children aged 5-14 years, with 90.3 percent of disabled children having 'good, very good, or excellent' parent-rated health compared with 98.6 percent of non-disabled children. After adjusting for age and gender, disabled children were significantly less likely (0.9 times as likely) to be rated as being in good, very good, or excellent health as non-disabled children.

Whānau wellbeing

Tāngata whaikaha Māori rated the wellbeing of their whānau lower on average than Māori non-disabled adults.

Te Kupenga 2018 asked people of Māori ethnicity and/or descent to assess how well their whānau were doing in all aspects of life, on a scale from 0-10 in which 10 means 'extremely well' and 0 'extremely badly'.

As measured with the WGSS, tāngata whaikaha Māori (aged 15 years and over) rated their whānau wellbeing, on average, 7.0 compared with 7.4 for Māori non-disabled adults.

Contact with friends and family

Most disabled adults had recently connected with friends and family they didn't live with, but were more likely than non-disabled adults to not have had as much contact as they'd like.

As measured by the HDS in 2023, 71 percent of disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) and 73 percent of non-disabled adults reported having both face-to-face contact and non-face-to-face contact with family in the last four weeks. Disabled adults were more likely to report insufficient contact with family members they didn't live with, with 27 percent indicating this, compared with 21 percent of non-disabled adults.

Disabled adults were less likely than non-disabled adults to report having both face-to-face and non-face-to-face contact with friends over the past four weeks, with 68 percent having both types of interaction recently compared with 80 percent of non-disabled adults. Disabled adults also more frequently reported not having enough contact with friends they didn't live with than non-disabled adults (27 percent compared with 21 percent).

Emotional support for parents of disabled children

Disabled children were similarly likely as non-disabled children to be living with a parent or caregiver who felt they had day-to-day emotional support in parenthood (including from partners).

In the 2024/25 year, as measured by the NZHS with the WG-CFM, 85.4 percent of disabled children (aged 5-14) lived with an emotionally supported parent, compared with 91.4 percent of non-disabled children.

After adjusting for age and gender, disabled children were 0.94 times as likely to live with an emotionally supported parent, which was not statistically significantly different from equal likelihood after considering sampling errors.

Loneliness

Disabled people were more likely than non-disabled people to report having felt lonely all or most of the time in the last four weeks.

As measured by the 2023 HDS, which provides the best available estimates about disabled people living in New Zealand households, 9 percent of disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) and 2 percent of non-disabled adults reported they felt lonely all or most of the time.

In 2023, as measured by the GSS with the WGSS-E, 14.8 percent of disabled adults (aged 15-64) said they felt lonely all or most of the time, compared with 3.0 percent of non-disabled adults.

Sense of belonging

Disabled people rated their sense of belonging to New Zealand lower than non-disabled people, with a broader disability gap among younger people.

GSS 2023 asked adults (aged 15 years and over) to assess their sense of belonging to New Zealand on a scale from 0-10, in which 10 meant 'very strong sense of belonging' and 0 'no sense of belonging'.

The mean rating disabled adults (based on WGSS-E) placed on their sense of belonging was 7.9, compared with 8.2 for non-disabled adults. Disparity in sense of belonging was broader for younger disabled adults (aged 15-64), with a mean rating of 7.5, compared with 8.1 for non-disabled adults of the same age.

Safety

Disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) were far more likely than non-disabled adults to feel unsafe in each of the situations covered by the HDS in 2023:

• at home alone, during the day - 4 percent of disabled adults and 1 percent of non-disabled adults
• at home alone, at night - 11 percent of disabled adults and 5 percent of non-disabled adults
• alone in their neighbourhood during the day - 8 percent of disabled adults and 2 percent of non-disabled adults
• alone in their neighbourhood at night - 32 percent of disabled adults and 18 percent of non-disabled adults
• using or waiting for public transport - 17 percent of disabled adults and 9 percent of non-disabled adults.

The GSS uses the WGSS-E to provide a more frequent indicator of disparities between disabled people and non-disabled people. It also includes a question about online feelings of safety in addition to situational safety questions found in the HDS.

As measured by the GSS in 2023, 56.2 percent of disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) and 66.7 percent of non-disabled adults reported feeling safe or very safe when using the internet for online transactions.

When looking at those aged 15-64, disabled people were still less likely than non-disabled people to report feeling safe when using the internet for online transactions (58.5 percent compared with 68.5 percent). This indicates that the older age structure of the disabled population is not the only reason that disabled people are less likely to feel safe online.

Experiences of discrimination and victimisation

Disabled adults were more likely to have experienced both discrimination and victimisation than non-disabled adults.

As measured by the 2023 HDS, 21 percent of disabled adults (aged 15 years and over) and 14 percent of non-disabled adults reported experiencing discrimination in the last 12 months.

Among disabled adults who had experienced discrimination, 29 percent felt that this had been based on their disability or health. For both disabled and non-disabled adults, the most common type of discrimination experienced was discrimination based on ethnicity or skin colour, reported by 45 percent of disabled people and 59 percent of non-disabled people who had experienced discrimination.

As measured by the GSS with the WGSS-E in 2023, 38.8 percent of disabled adults (aged 15-64) had experienced discrimination, compared with 22.0 percent of non-disabled adults.

Experiences of victimisation are captured through the NZCVS, which uses the WGSS to identify disability status. In addition to yearly data, estimates from the NZCVS are published using data combined across multiple years to provide a larger sample size. This is especially useful for data about small population groups.

Victimisation refers to either being targeted by an offence or having owned property targeted by an offence.

Based on NZCVS pooled data from 2018 to 2024, and adjusting for age differences, disabled adults were significantly more likely to have been victimised over the last 12 months compared with non-disabled adults (38.3 percent and 29.8 percent, respectively).

Higher rates of victimisation for disabled adults were observed both for household offences, like burglary or damage to the home, and personal offences, like assault or harassment.

Acceptance of disabled people

The majority of New Zealanders would be comfortable gaining a new neighbour with a disability, regardless of whether they themselves were disabled.

As measured by the GSS in 2023, 84.6 percent of respondents said they would feel very comfortable or comfortable about a new neighbour who had a disability or long-term health condition. This did not differ significantly by the disability status of the respondent (as identified with the WGSS-E).

Participation in society

Disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand participate in many aspects of society at similar rates to non-disabled people, though may participate in different ways.

Civic engagement, including voting in general, local, and iwi elections, shows broadly comparable participation between disabled and non-disabled people. Volunteering is also common among disabled adults, with similar participation rates to non-disabled adults and, on average, more hours contributed. Most disabled people take part in leisure activities, though fewer per month than non-disabled people, and tāngata whaikaha Māori show strong engagement with environmental stewardship.

However, disabled people face significant barriers to full participation in education and employment. Educational participation drops sharply after age 18, and disabled adults are less likely to hold university-level qualifications. Employment rates are substantially lower, with higher rates of unemployment and underutilisation.

Many disabled adults who are not in paid work want a job, citing flexible work arrangements and more positive attitudes toward disabled people as key potential enablers. Employed disabled people report lower satisfaction with their jobs and work-life balance, and a third of disabled employees have unmet need for support or accommodations at work.

Figure 3