Overview: The term chronic disease applies to a group of diseases that tend to be long lasting and have persistent effects.

Chronic diseases have a range of potential impacts on a person's individual circumstances, including quality of life and broader social and economic effects. Chronic diseases are the leading causes of fatal burden of disease (the amount of life lost due to people dying early) in most age and sex groups and are the leading cause of illness, disability and death in Australia, accounting for 90% of all deaths in 2011.

This resource presents information on the prevalence of selected chronic diseases from different data sources.