CHART
Disability Prevalence by Year in the United States
The percentage of non-institutionalized males or females with any disability, all ages, all races, regardless of ethnicity, across all levels of education in the United States in 2023.
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SUMMARY
Note: The summary does not currently take comparison data into account.
Description of Statistics
Insufficient data found.
Caution: Sample Sizes and Margin of Error (MOE)
Caution should be used when interpreting a statistic when the Margin of Error (MOE) is large relative to the estimate. The MOE is a measurement of the accuracy of the statistic. We recommend that you indicate MOE when reporting a statistic.
DEFINITIONS
Definition of Prevalence
Prevalence is a way to measure how common something is at a specific time. On this website, prevalence refers to the percentage or number of persons reporting that they have a disability.
The prevalence is calculated by dividing the number of people reporting a disability by the total number of people in the population.
Definition of Prevalence
Prevalence is a way to measure how common something is at a specific time. On this website, prevalence refers to the percentage or number of persons reporting that they have a disability.
The prevalence is calculated by dividing the number of people reporting a disability by the total number of people in the population.
Definition of Any Disability
The ACS definition of disability is based on six questions. A person is coded as having a disability if he or she or a proxy respondent answers affirmatively for one or more of these six categories.
- Hearing Disability (asked of all ages): Is this person deaf or does he/she have serious difficulty hearing?
- Visual Disability (asked of all ages): Is this person blind or does he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?
- Cognitive Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?
- Ambulatory Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Does this person have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?
- Self-care Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Does this person have difficulty dressing or bathing?
- Independent Living Disability (asked of persons ages 15 or older): Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?