Mental health is Australia’s most common health condition, the Census reveals

The nation’s leading long-term health condition — more common than our biggest killer diseases like cancer or heart disease — has been revealed.

Mental health is now Australia’s leading long term health condition, the Census has revealed.

And it is twice as common as our biggest killers heart disease and cancer.

The 2021 Census was the first ever to ask Australians about whether they suffered from long-term health conditions and a new analysis of the data was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

Australian statistician Dr David Gruen said the data “offers important insights for the planning and delivery of health care services across the country, and for the first time, provides a snapshot of these long-term health conditions for every community across Australia”.

The Census found nearly one in three Australians suffers from a long term health condition and that they are more common among women and older people.

Of the over 8 million people with at least one long-term health condition 54.1 per cent were female and 45.9 per cent were male.

Females were more likely than males to have conditions such as arthritis, a mental health condition and dementia, while males were more likely than females to have conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and stroke

The most commonly reported long-term health conditions in the Australian population were a mental health condition (8.8 per cent), arthritis (8.5 per cent) and asthma (8.1 per cent).

Only 3.9 per cent of people reported suffering from heart disease, 2.9 per cent had cancer and just 0.7 per cent of people had dementia even though these three conditions are our biggest killers.

Its our biggest killer but only half as many people suffered from this condition as from a mental illness. Picture: iStock

The chance of having a long term health condition increased with age.

Just 11.7 per cent of people aged 0-14 years had a long-term health condition compared to 61.4 per cent of people aged 65-84 years and 73.1 per cent of people aged 85 years.

Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke begin to decrease from 80 and 90 years, suggesting that people with these conditions have a shorter life span than those with other conditions, the analysis showed.

Tasmania was the nation’s sickest state with 37.5 per cent of people living in Tasmania suffering a long-term health condition. This was followed by South Australia where 35.1 per cent had a long term health condition and the ACT where 33 per cent had a long term health condition.

The Northern Territory has the lowest proportion of people with a long term health 23.4 per cent.

The nation’s sickest state has been revealed. Picture: iStock

This is likely to reflect the fact Tasmania had an older population with a median age of 42 compared to the NT’s median age of 33.

The most commonly reported long-term health condition in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT was a mental health condition, whereas in New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania it was arthritis. In the Northern Territory, the mostly commonly reported condition was asthma.

The analysis of the census provided strong support for the concept of the ‘healthy migrant effect’.

This effect is likely due to the fact that health requirements and eligibility criteria for migrants ensure that those moving here are generally in good health.

Most migrants have good, if not better, health on arrival compared to the Australian-born population and is reflected in longer life expectancy, lower death and hospitalisation rates, and a lower prevalence of some lifestyle-related risk factors.

Three out of four people who had a long-term health condition were born in Australia and only 26.2 per cent were born overseas.

The healthiest migrants were those from South Africa, they were the least likely to have a long term condition followed by immigrants from the US.

Migrants from Greece (56.1 per cent) and Italy (53.7 per cent) were most likely to have long term health conditions

Rates of people with a long-term health condition were also high for those in Australia born in Scotland (47.9 per cent), England (45.5 per cent) and Germany (44.9 per cent).

This is likely due to the age of these migrants. The median age of those born in Greece was 74 years and the median age of those born in Italy was 72 years.

Of the people who were born in China (excludes SARs and Taiwan), 16.1 per cent had a long-term health condition. For those born in India, 14.2 per cent had a long term health condition.

HEALTHIEST MIGRANTS

South Africa

US

Australia

New Zealand

Lebanon

Germany

England

Scotland

Italy

Greece

MOST COMMON LONG TERM HEALTH CONDITION RANKED BY PROPORTION OF POPULATION SUFFERING FROM THEM

mental health condition (8.8 per cent)

arthritis (8.5 per cent)

asthma (8.1 per cent)

diabetes (4.7 per cent)

heart disease (3.9 per cent)

cancer (2.9 per cent)

lung condition (1.7 per cent)

stroke (0.9 per cent)

kidney disease (0.9 per cent)

dementia (0.7 per cent).

SICKEST STATES PROPORTION OF POPULATION WITH A LONG TERM HEALTH CONDITION

Tasmania 37.5 per cent

South Australia 35.1 per cent

ACT 33 per cent

Queensland 32.9 per cent

Victoria 31.4 per cent

NSW 30.9 per cent

Western Australia 29.9 per cent

Northern Territory 23.4 per cent