Facts Count

Throughout our lives, all of us will be impacted by disabilities, whether it is directly or indirectly.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 1 billion people, about 15% of the world’s population, currently experience disability. 61 million or 26% of adults in the United States have some form of disability,¹ which means that 1 in 4 American adults live with a disability, making people with disabilities the largest minority group in the nation.  

The statistics show that disability affects ALL people indiscriminately – men and women, young and old, of all races and ethnicities. Despite the prevalence of disabilities, people with disabilities are still subjected to prejudice and treated unfairly. Many in society lack awareness of the struggles and difficulties faced by people living with disabilities. Hopefully the statistics and facts presented in this article will help raise our awareness of the disability-related issues and encourage us to act with compassion toward people with disabilities. 

Disability Worldwide

• Over 1 billion of the world’s population live with some type of disability, constituting the world’s most significant minority.² 

• The number of persons with disabilities is fast increasing. Many factors contribute to the rise in the disabled population, including shifts in demographic trends, rise in chronic health conditions, advances in medical interventions, improvement in methodologies used to collect data, and other factors.³

• Around 975 million (19.4%) people aged 15 and over live with a disability. Of these, 190 million (3.8%) are estimated to have “severe”⁴ disabilities.⁵

• Among those 14 years and younger, the numbers are 93 million (5.1%) and 13 million (0.7%), respectively.⁶

• In countries with life longevity over 70 years, people spend about 8 years (11.5%) of their lives living with disabilities.⁷

• The global aging trend has a significant impact on disability prevalence. Studies show that there is a higher disability rate among older people. A positive correlation exists between aging and disability.⁸

• Women and girls with disabilities often face double discrimination and a higher risk of violence, abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or exploitation.⁹

• Children with disabilities experience multiple challenges and disadvantages in their homes, schools, and communities. The following are the key findings from a recent UNICEF report:¹⁰
  1.  Approximately 240 million children worldwide have some form of disability. That is, 1 in 10 children in the world is living with disabilities.
  2. Children with disabilities experience many disadvantages compared with their peers without disabilities. Children with disabilities are:
     • 25% less likely to receive early stimulation and responsive care.
     • 25% less likely to attend early childhood education.
     • 16% less likely to read or be read to at home.
     • 42% less likely to have foundational reading the numeracy skills.
     • 49% more likely to never attend school.
     • 47% more likely to be out of primary school.
     • 33% more like to be out of lower-secondary school.
     • 27% more likely to be out of upper-secondary school.
     • 32% more likely to experience severe corporal punishment.
     • 41% more likely to feel discriminated against.
     • 20% less likely to have expectations of a better life. 

• Disability is a human rights issue because people with disabilities often encounter unfair treatment and lack equal access to education, employment, health care, and political participation.¹¹

• People with disabilities and their families are more likely to face adverse socioeconomic situations than those without a disability.¹²

• There is a higher disability prevalence in lower-income countries.¹³ Studies show that disability and economic poverty reinforce one another.¹⁴

Disability in the United States

General

• According to American Community Survey (ACS), about 40.1 million or 12.7%  of the total civilian non-institutionalized population are with a disability.¹⁵ 

• The same survey shows little difference between men (12.6%) and women (12.8) to have a disability. 

• ACS indicates that the disability prevalence is lowest among the Asian population (7.2%) and highest among the native Americans (17.2%).

• The employment rate for people with disabilities is significantly lower than that of people without disabilities, 19.1% vs. 63.7%.¹⁶

• The disability rate is higher among older people.¹⁷ 

• The following statistics show the pervasiveness of different disability types.¹⁸

Disability Types	Percent of People
Hearing difficulty	3.6%
Vision difficulty	2.3%
Cognitive difficulty	5.2%
Ambulatory difficulty	6.9%
Self-care difficulty	2.6%
Independent living difficulty	5.9%

• Based on the report by American Disability Institute, people with disabilities have lower educational attainment than people without disabilities.¹⁹

• The same report indicates that poverty is highly correlated with educational attainment. The poverty rate for adults with disabilities is more than twice that of adults without disabilities, 27% vs. 12%.²⁰

Childhood Disability ²¹

• In 2019, an estimated 2.6 million households, 7.2% of the 36.7 million households having children under 18, had at least one child with a disability. 

• Over 3 million children under 18 (4.3%) had a disability in the same year.

• Among different age groups, disability was more prevalent in children aged 15 to 17 (6.1%) than children aged 5 to 14 (5.5%) and children aged under the age of 5 (less than 1%).  

• The percentage of children with a disability increased from 3.9% to 4.3% between 2008 and 2019.

• In 2019, the prevalence of childhood disability was highest among American Indian and Alaska Native children (5.9%) and lowest among Asian children (2.3%). 

• In 2019, the childhood disability rate was higher among families in poverty (6.5%) than the rate (3.8%) among families not in poverty.

• There were also regional differences in the childhood disability rate. In 2019, childhood disability prevalence was higher in the South (4.6%) and the Northeast (4.5%) and the lowest in the West (3.8%).

• In 2019, cognitive difficulty was the most common type of disability among children aged 5 to 17 years. Childhood disability often adversely affects the financial and emotional health of the families.

• Childhood disability has negative implications for later well-being, including the level of education, the prospect of job opportunities, and social network. 

Students with Disabilities ²²

• In 2019-20, students aged 3 to 21 who received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were 7.3 million (14%) of total public-school enrollment.

• Among students who received special education services, the most common type of disability was special learning disabilities.

• The percentage of students served under IDEA differed by race/ethnicity in the school year 2019-20. Three groups of students had percentages higher than the percentage of overall public-school students served under IDEA (14%). The percentage was highest among American Indian/Alaska Native students (18%), followed by Black students (17%) and students with two or more races (15%). The percentage was lowest for Asian students (7%) and Pacific Islander students (11%).

• Among public-school students aged 6-21, 18% of male students and 10% of female students received special education services under IDEA in the school year 2019-20. 

• Among students aged 14-21 who exited school in 2018-19, the percentage of students who graduated with a high school diploma was highest among Asian students (78%) and lowest among Black students (65%). The percentage of students who “dropped out” was highest among American Indian/Native Alaska Native students (12%) and lowest for Asian students (4%). 

Numbers are critical because they are facts that show the increasing prevalence of disabilities and their impact on the world. Numbers speak out for people with disabilities and shed light on the compounding challenges they face in their lives. Behind every number, is a real-life story.

We cannot be satisfied with the factual data and stop there. We are to search for the whole story behind the numbers. We need to reach out, hear the voices and stories, and advocate for those living with disabilities. 

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References

1 CDC. (2019, March 8). Disability Impacts All of Us Infographic | CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html.

2 Disability and health. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health.

3 Disability and health. (n.d.).

4 “Severe disability” is defined by severity classes established by the Global Burden of Disease. Examples of health conditions equivalent to severe disabilities include Alzheimer, Down syndrome, blindess, and quadriplegia. World Health Organization. (2008). The global burden of disease: 2004 update. 31-33. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43942

5 World Health Organization & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability 2011. 29. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/44575.

6 World Health Organization & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability 2011. 29.

7 World, D. (2014, January 1). Disability Statistics: Information, Charts, Graphs and Tables. Disabled World. https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/.

8 World Health Organization & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability 2011. 34-36.

9 Women and girls with disabilities | United Nations Enable. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/women-and-girls-with-disabilities.html.

10 Seen, Counted, Included: Using data to shed light on the well-being of children with disabilities. (2021, November 9). UNICEF DATA. https://data.unicef.org/resources/children-with-disabilities-report-2021/.

11 World Health Organization & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability 2011. 9.

12 Disability Inclusion Overview. (n.d.). [Text/HTML]. World Bank. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability.

13 World Health Organization & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability 2011. 10.

14 Banks, L. M., Kuper, H., & Polack, S. (2017). Poverty and disability in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. PloS one, 12(12), e0189996. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189996.

15 S1810: DISABILITY CHARACTERISTICS – Census Bureau Table. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=disability&y=2020&tid=ACSST5Y2020.S1810.

16 19.1 percent of people with a disability were employed in 2021: The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/19-1-percent-of-people-with-a-disability-were-employed-in-2021.htm.

17 The following table shows the disability rate in different age groups.

S1810: DISABILITY CHARACTERISTICS – Census Bureau Table. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=disability&y=2020&tid=ACSST5Y2020.S1810.

18 S1810: DISABILITY CHARACTERISTICS – Census Bureau Table. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2022.

19 FINANCIAL INEQUALITY: Disability, Race and Poverty in America. (2017, February 8). National Disability Institute. 10-11. https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/reports/financial-inequality-disability-race-and-poverty-in-america/.

20 FINANCIAL INEQUALITY: Disability, Race and Poverty in America. (2017, February 8). National Disability Institute.12-13.

21 The statistics for the section, Childhood Disability, are from the American Community Survey Briefs – Childhood Disability in the United States: 2019. Bureau, U. C. (n.d.). Childhood Disability in the United States: 2019. Census.Gov. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/acs/acsbr-006.html.

22 The information in the section students with disabilities comes from National Center for Education Statistics.The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National Center for Education Statistics). (n.d.). National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64.