As part of the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians (Council of Attorneys‑General, 2019), the Attorney-General’s Department commissioned the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study (NEAPS) to investigate elder abuse. This snapshot provides the key findings of the Survey of Older People (2020), a nationally representative survey of 7,000 people aged 65 and over living in the community (i.e. they did not live in residential aged care settings). The full report on the NEAPS is available here >

How common is sexual abuse?

The Survey of Older People indicated that 1% of community-dwelling people aged 65 and older in Australia reported an experience of sexual abuse in the 12 months preceding the survey. Of those who reported experiencing sexual abuse the most common form of sexual abuse was being talked to in an unwanted sexual way (77%), and one-third (32%) reported being touched in a sexual way against their will. Most older people who experienced sexual abuse reported experiencing one type of sexual abuse (65%) and over one-third (35%) reported multiple types of sexual abuse.