Please click on a topic, below, to access the related statistical information:

What is the definition of a disability? ⁽¹⁾
An individual with a disability is defined as a person who:

• has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
• a record of such an impairment,
• or is regarded as having such an impairment.

How many people in the United States are disabled? ⁽²⁾

• 54 million or 20.6% people in the United States live with some level of disability.
• 26 million Americans have a severe disability.

How many people have a need for personal assistance? ⁽³⁾
About 9 million people of all ages are disabled to the point of needing personal assistance for everyday activities.

How many wheelchair users are in the United States? ⁽⁴⁾
1.6 million people use wheelchairs.

• 4.8 million use canes
• 1.8 million use walkers
• 1.6 million use wheelchairs
• 4.2 million use hearing aides
• 1.7 million use back braces

How do Americans pay for their assistive technologies? ⁽⁶⁾

• 48% of assistive technologies are paid for by the user or with family support.
• 53% of assistive devices or technologies are paid for by a third party such as foundations or government funding.

How does disability differ by age in the US? ⁽⁷⁾

• The likelihood of experiencing a disability increases with age - 56% among those over 85, 38% over 65.
• Rates lower among younger Americans
  • 6.1% in those less than age 18.
  • 6.9% ages 18-24
  • 14.1% ages 25-54
  • 28.4% ages 55-64

How do American men and women differ in terms of disability? ⁽⁸⁾

• 15.4% of women in the United States are limited in activities in daily living.
• 14.6% of men in the United States are limited in activities in daily living.

What is the divorce rate when one or both spouses are disabled?
According the government's National Health Interview Survey in 1994, out of 50,000 households, 20.7 percent of the disabled adults among those polled were divorced or separated, compared to 13.1 percent of those without disabilities.

Children with Disabilities

How many children have disabilities within the U.S.? ⁽⁹⁾

• An estimated 4 million children and adolescents under the age of 18 years of age.
• Diseases and disorders account for 58.4% of disabling conditions, while impairments account for 41.6%.
• Diseases of the respiratory system are the most common disabling condition affecting 987,000 thousand children, followed by:
  • Mental Retardation - 786,000 thousand children
  • Mental Disorders - 440,00 thousand children
  • Diseases of the nervous system and sense organs - 375,000 thousand children
  • Speech Impairments - 335,00 thousand children

Impairments

How many Americans have visual impairments? ⁽¹⁰⁾
Over 8 million Americans have visual impairments.

What are the common visual impairments? ⁽¹⁰⁾

• Nearly 3 million Americans are color blind.
• Nearly 3 million Americans have glaucoma.
• Over 700,000 Americans have cataracts.

How many Americans have hearing impairments? ⁽¹⁰⁾
Over 34 million Americans are hearing-impaired.

How many Americans have speech impairments? ⁽¹⁰⁾
Almost 2.7 million Americans have speech impairments.

International

What is the number of people worldwide who are disabled? ⁽¹¹⁾
Up to 600 million people throughout the world live with a disability.

Do disabled persons in developing nations have access to rehabilitation? ⁽¹¹⁾

• 80 million people worldwide require rehabilitation services.
• No more than 10% of disabled people in the developing world have access to rehabilitation.

Invisible Disabilities

Rest Ministries, in San Diego, California, has noted that out of 26 million persons who are considered to have a severe disability, only 7.0 million use a visible device for mobility. "Thus, 19 million of the people who were defined as severely disabled, do not use a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walkers. In other words, 73% of Americans with severe disabilities do not use such devices. Therefore, a disability can not be determined solely on whether or not a person uses visible assistive equipment". ⁽¹³⁾

Mental Health

How many people have mental health issues? ⁽¹⁴⁾

• An estimated 22.1 percent of Americans ages 18 and older, or 1 in 5 adults, suffer from mental illness in a given year.
• 4 of the 10 leading causes of disability in the U.S. and other developed countries are mental disorders - major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time.

Mental Impairments

How many Americans have mental impairments? ⁽¹⁵⁾

• Based on the 1990 census, an estimated 6.2 to 7.5 million people have mental retardation.
• Mental retardation is 10 times more common than cerebral palsy.
• Mental Retardation is 28 times more prevalent than neural tube defects such as spina bifida.
• Mental Retardation affects 25 times as many people as blindness.

Religion and Disabilities

How many American adults with disabilities seek pastoral care? ⁽¹⁸⁾
Information from the 1998 National Health Survey shows that 26 percent of U.S. adults who seek pastoral care from a priest, minister, rabbi, or other religious counselor have disabilities. The percent increases with age and is higher among women at 52 percent. People with disabilities are more than twice as likely as persons with disabilities to seek pastoral care: 8.1 percent disabled compared 4 percent able-bodied.

What is the likelihood of people with disabilities attending religious services at least once a month when compared to people without disabilities? ⁽¹⁸⁾
47 percent of Americans with disabilities attend religious services at least once per month, compared to 65 percent of those without disabilities. The National Organization on Disability points out that approximately 65 percent of people with and without disabilities consider their religious faith very important to them. "Therefore something else - likely a barrier of architecture or attitude - is holding people with disabilities back from attending services".

Spinal Cord Injury

What is the total number of people with spinal cord injuries in the United States? ⁽¹⁶⁾
Currently estimates are 250,000 - 400,000 individuals living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) or a spinal dysfunction.

What is the rate of spinal cord injuries in a given year? ⁽¹⁶⁾
32 injuries per million population or, 7,800 injuries in the U.S. each year.

How do rates of spinal cord injuries differ for men and women? ⁽¹⁶⁾

• 82% Male
• 18% Female

What are the common causes of a spinal cord injury? ⁽¹⁶⁾

• Motor vehicle accidents (44%)
• Acts of violence (24%)
• Falls (22%)
• Sports (8%)
  • 2/3 of sports injuries are from diving
  • 92% of all sports injuries result in quadriplegia

Traumatic Brain Injury

What is the total amount of people who have sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in a given year? ⁽¹⁷⁾

• Each year in the United States, an estimated 1.5 million people sustain a TBI, which is 8 times the number of people diagnosed with breast cancer and 34 times the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS.
• An estimated 300,000 sports-related brain injuries of mild to moderate severity occur in the United States each year.

• 5.3 million Americans or 2% of the population are living today with a TBI-realated disability.
• 50,000 or 22% of people who have a TBI die from their injuries.
• Each year 80,000 to 90,000 Americans survive a hospitalization for traumatic brain injury, but are discharged with TBI-related disabilities.

What is the mortality rate of a TBI? ⁽¹⁷⁾

• The leading causes of TBI are vehicle crashes, firearm use, and falls.
• Crashes involving motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, and recreational vehicles are the primary causes of TBI.
• 9 out of 10 people with a firearm-related TBI die.

1. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Facts About the Americans with Disabilities Act. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html.

2. Disability Statistics Center. Frequently Asked Questions: How Many Americans Have a Disability? http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

3. U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Brief. December 1997.

4. Disability Statistic Center. Frequently Asked Questions: How Many Americans Use Wheelchairs and Other Assistive Devices or Technologies? http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

5. National Center for Health Statistic. FASTATS A to Z: Disabilities and Impairments. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/.

6. Disability Statistic Center. Frequently Asked Questions: How do Americans Fund Their Assistive Technology? http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

7. Disability Statistic Center. Frequently Asked Questions: How Does Disability Vary by Age in the U.S.? http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

8. Disability Statistic Center. Frequently Asked Questions: How Do American Men and Women differ in Terms of Disability? http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

9. Disability Statistic Center. Abstract 15: Disabilities Among Children. March 1996. http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/spl.taf?_from=default.

10. National Center for Health Statistics. FASTATS A to Z: Disabilities and Impairments. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/.

11. World Health Organization. Declining Resources for Rehabilitation: A Matter of Concern. January 30, 1996. http://www.who.int/en/.

12. Human Rights. The Facts: Disability. www.newint.org/issue298/facts.html.

13. Rest Ministries. Invisible Illness Statistics. www.restministries.org.

14. National Institute of Mental Health. The Numbers Count. www.nimh.gov.

15. The ARC. Introduction to Mental Retardation. www.thearc.org.

16. National Spinal Cord Injury Association. Spinal Cord Injury Statistics. www.spinalcord.org.

17. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Traumatic Brain Injury. www.cdc.gov.

18. The National Organization on Disability. Religious Participation: Facts and Statistics. http://www.nod.org/religion/index.cfm.

Revised: March, 2004