Persistent gaps in health and wellbeing for disabled New Zealanders

15 May 2026

In November 2025, the Ministry of Health released the latest results from the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS), which monitors the health and wellbeing of people living in New Zealand.

The Ministry of Health reports the survey yearly, from July to June. You can find the 2024/2025 results in the Annual Data Explorer. This page summarises key findings for disabled adults (15 years and over) and disabled children (ages 5 to 14), and shows how health, service use, and wellbeing differ for disabled people.

Health service use higher among disabled adults

The latest data from the 2024/2025 NZHS shows that disabled adults were less likely to report good, very good or excellent health (61.4% compared with 89.0%). Disabled adults also made greater use of health services than non-disabled adults, particularly primary and emergency care.

When compared with non-disabled adults, disabled adults were more likely to have:

visited the Emergency Department in the past 12 months (35.0% compared with 15.4%)
visited a GP in the last 12 months (89.8% compared with 74.9%)
visited a practice nurse in the past 12 months (44.6% compared with 27.3%)
consulted a psychologist, counsellor, or psychotherapist about mental health in the past 12 months (16.1% compared with 8.6%).

Despite higher use of health services, disabled adults were less likely to have private health insurance (19.6% compared with 36.5%).

Disabled adults face greater barriers to accessing healthcare

Despite higher levels of health service use, disabled adults were more likely to experience unmet need for healthcare and face barriers to accessing primary care.

Compared with non‑disabled adults, disabled adults were more likely to report unmet need in the past 12 months for mental health and addictions services (21.9% compared with 9.4%).

Disabled adults were also more likely to report unmet need for a GP due to:

lack of transport (11.2% compared with 2.3%)
cost (22.8% compared with 14.1%)
owing money to the clinic (6.6% compared with 1.6%)
wait time being too long (33.2% compared with 24.7%)
dislike or fear of the GP (5.2% compared with 2.4%)
lack of a support person or interpreter (1.5% compared with 0.3%).

Disabled adults were also more likely than non-disabled adults to report having at least 1 unfilled prescription due to cost (7.4% compared with 3.2%).

Disabled adults report poorer mental health outcomes and lower wellbeing

The latest data shows that disabled adults experienced poorer mental health and wellbeing outcomes than non-disabled adults across a range of measures, including:

self-rated health
psychological distress
life satisfaction
loneliness.

When compared with non-disabled adults, disabled adults were:

more likely to report high or very high psychological distress (35.5% compared with 12.2%)
more likely to report being lonely most or all of the time (12.8% compared with 3.5%)
less likely to report high or very high life satisfaction (64.3% compared with 85.2%)
less likely to report high or very high family wellbeing (71.2% compared with 84.3%).

Disabled adults less likely to meet sleep and physical activity guidelines

Disabled adults were less likely to meet recommended sleep duration and physical activity guidelines when compared with non-disabled adults. Disabled adults reported being:

less likely to meet recommendations for sleep duration (45.5% compared with 69.5%)
less likely to be physically active (29.3% compared with 47.9%)
more likely to have little or no physical activity (28.3% compared with 10.8%).

For guideline definitions, read About the data.

Oral health gaps: poorer outcomes and greater tooth loss among disabled adults

The latest data shows that disabled adults report overall poorer oral health and a higher prevalence of tooth loss due to decay. When compared with non-disabled adults, disabled adults were:

less likely to report excellent, very good or good oral health (63.2% compared with 78.3%)
more likely to have ever had teeth removed due to decay (65.7% compared with 45.6%)
more likely to have had teeth removed due to decay in the past 12 months (10.2% compared with 7.2%)
1.9 times as likely to have had all teeth removed due to decay after accounting for age and gender.

Smoking and hazardous drinking remain high among disabled adults

In the latest data disabled adults were more likely to smoke than non‑disabled adults. When compared with non‑disabled adults, and after adjusting for age and gender, disabled adults were:

1.9 times as likely to be current smokers
1.9 times as likely to smoke daily
2.2 times as likely to be a heavy smoker (among daily smokers)
1.7 times as likely to vape daily.

Disabled adults were also more likely than non‑disabled adults to be exposed to second‑hand smoke.

Adjusted for age and gender, disabled adults were:

2.2 times as likely to have experienced secondhand smoke inside the home
2.5 times as likely to have experienced secondhand smoke inside a car or van.

After adjusting for age and gender, the survey found that a lower proportion of disabled adults reported having an alcoholic drink in the past 12 months than non‑disabled adults (69.5% compared with 75.4%). However, disabled adults who drank in the past year were 1.5 times more likely to report hazardous drinking than non‑disabled drinkers in the past year.

Disabled men lag in reductions to smoking and heavy drinking

The latest data shows that disabled men have not followed the recent downward trends in smoking and drinking seen for others. Since 2018/2019, smoking rates have fallen for disabled women and for non-disabled men and women, but there has been no significant change for disabled men.

For alcohol, improvements among non-disabled men have brought their rates more into line with disabled men who have shown no significant change.

Current smoker rates: no significant change for disabled men (15.1% in 2024/2025), while the rate for non-disabled men decreased (from 16.1% in 2018/2019 to 10.1% in 2024/2025) with similar declines for women.
Heavy episodic drinking (weekly): no change for disabled men (11.4% in 2024/2025), while non-disabled men decreased (from 18.9% to 11.5%)
Heavy episodic drinking (monthly): no change for disabled men (18.8% in 2024/2025) while non-disabled men decreased (from 30.8% to 24.3%).
Hazardous drinking patterns: no change for disabled men (21.6% in 2024/2025), while non-disabled men decreased (from 28.2% to 21.9%).

When adjusted for age, disabled men were more likely than non-disabled men to report having a hazardous drinking pattern.

Illicit drug use more common among disabled adults

After adjusting for age and gender, disabled adults were more likely than non‑disabled adults to report having taken the following drugs for a purpose other than prescribed during the 12 months before the survey:

amphetamine-type stimulant (3.3 times as likely)
ecstasy/MDMA (1.3 times as likely)
hallucinogens (2.3 times as likely)
cannabis (2.0 times as likely)
opioids (3.0 times as likely).

Disabled children seek support more often

Disabled children reported having sought support for mental health more than non‑disabled children. Compared with non‑disabled children, they were more likely to consult:

a teacher (47.6% compared with 9.2%)
family, whānau and/or friends (41.0% compared with 10.8%)
a GP or nurse (33.5% compared with 4.1%)
a psychologist, counsellor, or psychotherapist (30.9% compared with 3.8%).

Disabled children were also more likely to have an unmet need for mental healthcare and addictions services (28.9% compared with 3.4%).

Help-seeking for mental health rising fastest among disabled boys

The 2024/2025 data shows a clear rise in help-seeking among disabled boys, compared with the 2022/2023 year when it was first measured. In recent years, more disabled boys have talked to school staff and to specialist professionals about their mental health, with much smaller changes among non-disabled boys. This includes increases in the proportion of disabled boys who:

consulted a teacher about mental health (48.5% up from 22.6% in 2022/2023)
consulted a psychologist, counsellor, or psychotherapist (32.7% up from 10.2%).

Caregivers report more challenges caring for disabled children

Caregivers of disabled children were more likely to report difficulties caring for them. For example, caregivers of disabled children were:

less likely to report they were coping well or very well with parenting (57.6% compared with 81.1%)
more likely to report their child was usually or always harder to care for than other children (32.7% compared with 2.9%)
more likely to report their child bothers them usually or always (22.5% compared with 3.2%)
more likely to report their child angers them usually or always (9.9% compared with 1.8%).

Food security lower for families of disabled children

Across household food security indicators, families of disabled children reported more hardship. Compared with non‑disabled children, disabled children were more likely to live in households that:

used food grants often or sometimes (28.8% compared with 10.4%)
ate less due to lack of money often or sometimes (37.8% compared with 20.7%)
had food run out often or sometimes (32.8% compared with 19.4%).

Disabled children less likely to meet sleep and healthy‑weight recommendations

The latest data shows that disabled children were less likely to meet sleep recommendations and more likely to have excess weight. When compared with non-disabled children, disabled children were more likely to:

sleep less than recommended (29.1% compared with 15.5%)
be overweight or obese (45.0% compared with 30.4%).

However, compared with non-disabled children, disabled children were more likely to meet vegetable and fruit consumption recommendations (7.2% compared with 2.1%).

Fewer disabled children have excellent health

The data shows that disabled children tended to experience poorer caregiver-rated health. When compared with non-disabled children, disabled children were:

less likely to have good, very good or excellent health (90.3% compared with 98.6%)
less likely to have good, very good or excellent oral health (79.6% compared with 91.2%)
visiting a GP more often in a year (mean of 2.5 visits compared with 1.5).

However, disabled children still experienced higher levels of unmet need for healthcare than non-disabled children. For example, disabled children were more likely to have:

unmet need for GP due to dislike or fear of GP (6.5% compared with 1.1%)
unmet need for GP due to transport (3.0% compared with 0.7%)
unmet need for dental healthcare due to cost (6.7% compared with 3.1%).

Girls lead the recent rise of neurodivergence in children

The 2024/2025 NZHS shows increases in rates of ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and hyperactivity across all children compared with 2022/2023.

The survey identified neurodivergence by asking caregivers whether they had been told by a doctor that their child has ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The survey identified hyperactivity by the child scoring a 7 or more on the hyperactivity subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

Total prevalence rose from:

3.2% to 5.8% for ADHD
2.5% to 3.7% for ASD
9.7% to 12.3% for hyperactivity.

These overall increases are driven largely by changes among girls. Girls showed significant rises across all conditions:

ADHD up from 1.3% to 4.9%
ASD from 1.0% to 2.4%
hyperactivity from 6.7% to 9.3%.

In contrast, rates among boys showed no significant change over the same period.

The sharpest increases occurred among disabled girls, where we observe increases in the proportion of disabled girls diagnosed with:

ADHD (26.9% up from 5.3%)
Hyperactivity (42.1% up from 19.3%)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (16.4% up from 4.4%).

Most neurodivergent children identified as disabled

Based on current survey estimates, the majority of neurodivergent children are classified as disabled under the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Model (CFM).

Overall, 59.0% of children with ADHD and 80.8% of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were also identified as disabled.

About the data

This summary uses data from the New Zealand Health Survey – Ministry of Health external URL .

Age and gender adjustment

Some data in this summary has been adjusted for age and gender to allow fair comparisons between disabled and non‑disabled people, who have different age and gender make‑ups.

This data is presented as rate ratios, which show how much more or less common an outcome is for 1 group compared with another. You can find data without this adjustment in the Annual Data Explorer and the downloadable data sets on the Ministry of Health's New Zealand Health Survey Annual Data Explorer:

Annual Data Explorer external URL

Downloadable data sets external URL

Sampling

The NZHS surveyed 9,253 adults and 2,805 children. Households were chosen at random. From each household, 1 adult aged 15 years or older, and 1 child aged 14 years or younger (if there was a child in the household) took part.

Disability status

As measured by the Washington Group Short Set, disabled adults are identified as those who have at least a lot of difficulty with:

seeing or hearing (even with glasses or hearing aids)
walking or climbing stairs
remembering or concentrating
self-care
communicating.

As measured by the Child Functioning Module (CFM), disabled children (aged 5 to 14 years) are those who have at least a lot of difficulty with:

seeing or hearing (even with glasses or hearing aids)
walking
self-care
communicating
learning
remembering
concentrating
accepting change
controlling their own behaviour or making friends
anxiety
depression.

The questions have been tested internationally and were developed as a reliable and efficient way of disaggregating disability data in surveys and censuses to compare outcomes for disabled and non-disabled people.

Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WG-SS) external URL

Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) external URL

Sleep and physical activity

The Ministry of Health’s sleep recommendations are adapted from the National Sleep Foundation recommendations. Note that some people naturally sleep slightly more or less than the recommended hours.

Recommended hours of sleep for adults are:

aged 15−17 years: 8 to 10 hours
aged 18−64 years: 7 to 9 hours
aged 65 years and over: 7 to 8 hours.

Physical activity (adults aged 15 years and over) is defined as doing at least 30 minutes of brisk walking or moderate-intensity physical activity (or equivalent vigorous activity), for at least 10 minutes at a time, at least 5 days a week.

Examples of moderate-intensity physical activity include:

golf
heavy gardening (such as manual lawnmowing)
heavy housework (such as cleaning windows)
occupations such as plumbing.

Examples of vigorous activity include:

running
touch rugby
vigorous work such as chopping wood.

Engaging in little or no physical activity (aged 15 years and over) is defined as doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity in the past 7 days.