Australia: share of population with a substance use disorder by type and sex

Share of population with a 12-month substance use disorder in Australia between 2020 and 2022, by disorder type and sex

Characteristic	Males	Females
Alcohol Harmful Use	1.9%	1.1%
Alcohol Dependence	1.4%	0.8%
Drug Use Disorders*	1.4%	0.5%

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Release date

October 2023

More information

Region

Australia

Survey time period

December 2020 to October 2022

Number of respondents

15,893 households

Age group

16-85 years

Method of interview

Face-to-face interview

Supplementary notes

12 month mental disorder refers to people who had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life and had sufficient symptoms of that disorder in the 12 months prior to the survey.

A person may have had more than one mental disorder.

*Includes Drug Harmful Use and Drug Dependence

Study included all usual residents in Australia living in private dwellings in both urban and rural areas in all states and territories, except very remote parts of Australia and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The exclusion of residents in special dwellings (e.g., hotels, boarding houses, and institutions) and homeless people means the results are likely to underestimate the prevalence of mental health disorders in the Australian population.

Citation formats

In a series of surveys conducted between 2020 and 2022, substance use disorders were more commonly experienced by males than females living in Australia. Nearly two percent of the male population reported that they had a harmful use of alcohol disorder, compared to just over one percent of the female population.