Quick facts

Population

Women are slightly less likely to have a disability than men. In 2006, 16 percent of women had a disability, compared with 17 percent of men.

Disability rates increase with age. In 2006, 9 percent of girls aged under 15 had a disability, compared with 20 percent of women aged 45 to 64, and 46 percent of women aged 65 years and over.

European women are more likely to have a disability than women of other ethnicities. In 2006, 18 percent of European women had a disability, compared with 17 percent of Māori, 11 percent of Pacific, and 5 percent of Asian women.

Most women who had a disability in 2006 had more than one disability (63 percent).

Paid work

Women with disabilities have lower rates of labour force participation than men with disabilities and women without disabilities.  In 2006, disabled women’s labour force participation rate was 58 percent, compared with 70 percent for disabled men, and 79 percent for non-disabled women.

In 2006, disabled women’s labour force participation rate was highest in the 15 to 44 year age group, where around six in ten women were in paid work. For non-disabled women, labour force participation was highest in the 45 to 64 age group, where around eight in ten women were in paid work.

Women with disabilities are also more likely to be unemployed that men with disabilities and women without disabilities. In 2006, the unemployment rate for women with disabilities was 9 percent, compared with 5 percent for both men with disabilities and women without disabilities.

Education

Women with disabilities are less likely to have an educational qualification than men with disabilities, and women without disabilities. In 2006, 36 percent of women with a disability had no educational qualification, compared with 34 percent of men with disabilities, 19 percent of women without a disability.

Despite being less likely to have an educational qualification, women with disabilities are slightly more likely than men with disabilities to be enrolled in formal education.  In 2006, 8 percent of disabled women aged 15 years and over were enrolled in education, compared with 6 percent of disabled men aged 15 years and over.

Housing

In 2006, almost all women with disabilities (93 percent) lived in households, rather than in residential care facilities.

About 4 percent of people with disabilities lived in residential facilities, and of those 70 percent were women. This is largely due to women’s longer life expectancy, as older people account for the majority of people with disabilities in residential facilities.

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 Last updated April 2009