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 physical abuse?

The Survey of Older People indicated that 2% of community-dwelling people aged 65 and older in Australia reported experiencing physical abuse in the 12 months preceding the survey. The most common form of physical abuse reported was threats to harm (61%), followed by reports of being grabbed, pushed or shoved (47%) (Figure 1). Most older people who experienced physical abuse reported experiencing one type of physical abuse (57%), with 43% reporting multiple types.