The 2021 Census asked about long-term health conditions for the first time. Respondents were asked if they had been diagnosed with a specific condition (or other condition) from a list of ten conditions plus "other".

Health conditions are likely to be highly correlated with need for assistance, but they are measuring different things. Whereas the need for assistance category includes people specifically requiring assistance in day-to-day activities due to a severe or profound disability, the long-term health conditions are much broader and include both people who need and don’t need assistance. Nevertheless, in most cases it would be expected that those with a need for assistance would have a greater prevalence of broader long-term health conditions than the wider community. This topic allows users to explore the specific health conditions of those needing assistance compared to the wider community, as well as those needing assistance in the benchmark area. Note that it can not be assumed that the need for assistance for any individual necessarily relates to any of the specific long-term health conditions, as these are independent questions, and there may be another disability which is not included in the long-term health topic.

For reference, in the 2021 Census, 5.8% of Australia’s population indicated a need for assistance, but 31.7% indicated that they had been diagnosed with a long-term health condition.

As health conditions are also correlated with disadvantage, this topic should be viewed in conjunction with the SEIFA index of disadvantage., and within this community of interest to household income, educational qualifications and housing tenure of people needing assistance.