At a glance
Disability inclusion statistics show a wide gap between access on paper and access in practice. The numbers span health, education, employment, poverty, digital access, and public services, and they point in the same direction: disability is still strongly associated with higher barriers and worse outcomes.
Fast facts
- 1.3 billion people, or 16% of the world population, experience significant disability (WHO disability and health fact sheet).
- In the United States, more than 1 in 4 adults, or over 70 million people, reported having a disability in 2022 (CDC 2024 DHDS release).
- The CDC’s latest Long COVID data found prevalence of 10.8% among adults with disabilities versus 6.6% among adults without disabilities (CDC 2024 DHDS release).
- The OECD says the United States has the largest disability poverty gap at 27% (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion).
- The UN Disability and Development Report 2024 says progress for persons with disabilities is insufficient on 30% of SDG targets (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
Key takeaways
- Disability inclusion is not a single-policy issue. The stats cover health, transport, school access, income, technology, and emergency response.
- The same pattern repeats across sources: people with disabilities face more barriers, more unmet needs, and worse average outcomes.
- Some of the sharpest gaps appear in basic services such as food, housing, healthcare, and transportation.
- The latest source figures also show that measurement is improving, which matters because better data is the only way to track whether inclusion efforts are working.
Disability inclusion statistics table of contents
- Global disability inclusion statistics
- U.S. disability inclusion statistics
- Health, education, and daily life gaps
- Employment, poverty, and income inequality
- Digital access, public services, and infrastructure
- UN and OECD disability inclusion benchmarks
- What the statistics imply for inclusion work
Global disability inclusion statistics
Disability inclusion starts with scale. The global baseline is large enough that any exclusion pattern affects a major share of the population, not a niche group.
1.3 billion people, or 16% of the world population, experience significant disability (WHO disability and health fact sheet). That figure is enough to make inclusion a systems issue rather than a special case.
A few of the most important global numbers from the supplied dataset are below.
| Statistic | Value | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| People experiencing significant disability | 1.3 billion, or 16% of the world population | WHO disability and health fact sheet |
| Early death gap | Some persons with disabilities die up to 20 years earlier | WHO disability and health fact sheet |
| Higher risk of selected conditions | Twice the risk of depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, obesity, or poor oral health | WHO disability and health fact sheet |
| Transportation barrier gap | Accessible and affordable transportation is 15 times more difficult | WHO disability and health fact sheet |
| School access gap in LMICs | Around 85% of children with disabilities do not attend school | UNICEF/WHO cited by WHO disability and health materials |
What stands out globally
The most striking global pattern is that disability inclusion gaps appear in both outcomes and access.
- Outcomes: some persons with disabilities die up to 20 years earlier than those without disabilities (WHO disability and health fact sheet).
- Health burden: persons with disabilities have twice the risk of a set of major conditions, including depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and poor oral health (WHO disability and health fact sheet).
- Mobility access: accessible and affordable transportation is 15 times more difficult for persons with disabilities than for those without disabilities (WHO disability and health fact sheet).
- School participation: around 85% of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries do not attend school (UNICEF/WHO cited by WHO disability and health materials).
That combination matters because it shows how exclusion compounds. When transport, school access, and health all move in the wrong direction at once, disability inclusion becomes a long-horizon policy challenge rather than a single intervention.
U.S. disability inclusion statistics
The U.S. data in the dataset is especially useful because it combines prevalence, age, race, and health comparisons.
The CDC’s 2024 materials report that more than 1 in 4 adults, or over 70 million people, reported having a disability in 2022 (CDC 2024 DHDS release). In the same source set, the most recent ACS estimate of disability prevalence is 13.4% in 2022, while the most recent BRFSS estimate is 28.7% in 2022 (CDC DHDS datasets page).
The gap between survey systems is itself a reminder that disability measurement depends on definitions and methods.
U.S. snapshot by indicator
| Indicator | Value | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Adults reporting a disability | More than 1 in 4 adults, or over 70 million people | CDC 2024 DHDS release |
| Long COVID prevalence among adults with disabilities | 10.8% | CDC 2024 DHDS release |
| Long COVID prevalence among adults without disabilities | 6.6% | CDC 2024 DHDS release |
| Disability prevalence among adults 65+ | 43.9% | CDC 2024 BRFSS update |
| Disability prevalence among American Indian or Alaska Native adults | 38.7% | CDC 2022 BRFSS update |
| Disability prevalence among adults identifying as Other/Multirace | 38.7% | CDC 2022 BRFSS update |
Age and group differences
The age pattern is blunt.
Adults aged 65 years and older had a disability prevalence of 43.9% in the CDC 2022 BRFSS update (CDC 2024 DHDS release). The CDC health care access article also says about 2 in 5 adults aged 65 years and older have a disability (CDC disabilities and health care access article).
That makes disability inclusion inseparable from aging policy.
The same CDC source says adults with disabilities are more likely to be women, older adults, adults below the federal poverty level, and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native or other racial/ethnic groups (CDC disabilities and health care access article). That is important because inclusion gaps are not evenly distributed across the population.
U.S. health comparisons
The dataset also includes a CDC health chart with direct comparisons between adults with and without disabilities.
- Depression: 42.0% vs 11.6% (CDC health data now chart).
- Obesity: 39.1% vs 27.6% (CDC health data now chart).
- Smoking: 26.2% vs 12.7% (CDC health data now chart).
- Diabetes: 16.7% vs 7.4% (CDC health data now chart).
Those numbers do not just show higher risk; they show a broad pattern of unequal health burden.
Health, education, and daily life gaps
Health and education are where disability inclusion becomes visible in everyday outcomes.
The WHO fact sheet says persons with disabilities have twice the risk of depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, obesity, or poor oral health (WHO disability and health fact sheet). That list covers mental health, chronic disease, and routine care, which suggests that access barriers and social determinants both matter.
The CDC health care access article says about 61 million U.S. adults, or 1 in 4, reported having a disability (CDC disabilities and health care access article). The same article says adults with disabilities are more likely to face barriers tied to age, poverty, and certain racial and ethnic identities (CDC disabilities and health care access article).
Education and learning access
The global education data is stark.
- Around 85% of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries do not attend school (UNICEF/WHO cited by WHO disability and health materials).
- In the UN Disability and Development Report 2024, one in 5 students with disabilities dropped out of school during the pandemic (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
- Nine in 10 students with disabilities did not have the ICT needed for remote learning (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
Those three figures tell a coherent story. When children do not attend school, students drop out, or remote learning technology is missing, disability inclusion is failing at the basic participation stage.
Daily life barriers that show up in data
The UN report supplies a long list of access gaps that extend beyond education:
- 52% of persons with disabilities versus 46% of persons without disabilities had difficulty accessing or affording food (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
- 31% vs 18% had difficulty accessing or affording water delivery (UN report).
- 31% vs 24% had difficulty accessing or affording energy (UN report).
- 28% vs 24% had difficulty accessing or affording housing (UN report).
- 34% vs 22% had difficulty accessing or affording health care (UN report).
- 40% vs 32% had difficulty accessing or affording medicines (UN report).
These are not abstract gaps. They describe basic household functioning.
Employment, poverty, and income inequality
Employment and poverty are where disability inclusion becomes a structural economic issue.
The OECD says around 1 in 6 people across the OECD report having a disability (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion). It also says the United States has the largest disability poverty gap at 27% (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion), with Korea second at 22% and the average disability poverty gap just below 10 percentage points (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion).
OECD poverty comparison
| Place or benchmark | Disability poverty gap | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 27% | OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion |
| Korea | 22% | OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion |
| OECD average | Just below 10 percentage points | OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion |
The same OECD material says one in four people with disability live in a household with income below 60% of the median (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion). That is a direct indicator of income vulnerability.
Employment gaps and job access
The UN report says the global employment of persons with disabilities would need to increase by at least 2 percentage points per year through 2030 to close the gap (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary). That implies the current pace is not enough.
The report also notes that unemployment and employment gaps for people with disability have changed little over the past decade (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion). That is the definition of a stubborn structural issue: the gap persists even when awareness rises.
Other labor-market and income findings from the dataset sharpen the picture.
- In Belgium, young people with disability are 3.5 times more likely to receive social support than peers without disability (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion).
- In Norway, young people with disability are about twice as likely to receive support as peers without disability (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion).
- In developing countries, 55% of persons with disabilities experience food insecurity (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
- The report says gaps are above 20 percentage points for multidimensional poverty and employment (UN report).
The bigger takeaway is not just that disability poverty exists. It is that the poverty gap appears wide enough to outlast ordinary labor-market improvement unless inclusion is built into policy design.
Digital access, public services, and infrastructure
Disability inclusion also depends on whether systems are physically and digitally reachable.
The UN report says gaps are above 10 percentage points for food insecurity, health, energy, and ICT (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary). That makes digital access part of the core inclusion story, not a side issue.
Infrastructure and public access stats
- A quarter of banks worldwide are physically inaccessible for wheelchair users (UN Disability and Development Report 2024 executive summary).
- A quarter of ATMs in developed regions are physically inaccessible for wheelchair users (UN report).
- Half of ATMs in developing regions are physically inaccessible for wheelchair users (UN report).
- Accessibility of employment agencies to wheelchair users reached 62% in 2022, up from 56% in 2018 (UN report).
- In developing countries, internet use is 11 percentage points lower for persons with disabilities than for persons without disabilities (UN report).
- Persons with disabilities are twice as likely as persons without disabilities in Europe to be unable to afford a computer (UN report).
Why these numbers matter
Physical access and digital access usually reinforce each other. If banks, ATMs, employers, and computers are not accessible or affordable, then people with disabilities face higher friction in almost every routine transaction.
That friction has measurable downstream effects:
- Access to work becomes harder.
- Access to cash and banking becomes harder.
- Access to learning and remote services becomes harder.
- Access to healthcare navigation becomes harder.
The inclusion problem is not limited to one sector because the barriers travel across sectors.
UN and OECD disability inclusion benchmarks
Some of the most useful statistics in the dataset are the ones that show whether institutions are improving.
The UN Disability Inclusion Strategy data shows progress inside the UN system itself.
- In 2024, 85 UN entities reported under the strategy, compared with 57 in 2019 (UN DIS report 2024).
- All 132 UN country teams have reported annually under the strategy since 2021 (UN DIS report 2024).
- In 2024, 42% of UN disability-inclusion indicators met or exceeded requirements, up from 38% in 2023 and 16% in 2019 (UN DIS report 2024).
- The share of UN entities rated missing requirements fell to 15% in 2024 from 48% in 2019 (UN DIS report 2024).
- The UN report says implementation has expanded over six years from 2019 to 2024 (UN DIS report 2024).
Benchmark snapshot
| Benchmark | 2019 | 2023 | 2024 | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UN entities reporting under DIS | 57 | - | 85 | UN DIS report 2024 |
| Indicators meeting or exceeding requirements | 16% | 38% | 42% | UN DIS report 2024 |
| Entities missing requirements | 48% | - | 15% | UN DIS report 2024 |
The benchmarks matter because they show that improvement is possible when institutions measure and report consistently.
The UN Disability and Development Report 2024 also provides a wider global scoreboard:
- Progress is insufficient on 30% of SDG targets for persons with disabilities (UN report).
- 14% of SDG targets have been missed or have stalled or reversed (UN report).
- Only 5 SDG indicators are on track for persons with disabilities by 2030 (UN report).
- In the report, 41% of persons with disabilities versus 28% of persons without disabilities did not have access to COVID-19 testing (UN report).
- Half of COVID-19 deaths occurred among persons with disabilities (UN report).
- A third of persons with disabilities lost access to personal assistance, assistive technology, or accessibility services early in the pandemic (UN report).
- The pandemic caused a 10% drop in exports of assistive products (UN report).
These are not isolated pandemic facts. They show how fragile inclusion systems can become during shocks.
What the statistics imply for inclusion work
The strongest pattern across the dataset is consistency. Different institutions, countries, and domains point to the same broad conclusion: disability inclusion improves when access is built into the system, and it fails when access is left as an afterthought.
A few practical interpretations follow directly from the supplied numbers:
- Health inclusion needs to account for the much higher prevalence of chronic disease and unmet care access among adults with disabilities (CDC health data now chart; WHO disability and health fact sheet).
- Education inclusion needs to cover attendance, dropout prevention, and remote learning access at the same time (WHO disability and health materials; UN report).
- Economic inclusion needs to address income gaps, transport, banking access, and workplace accessibility together (OECD Disability, Work and Inclusion; UN report).
- Digital inclusion is no longer optional because ICT access and computer affordability shape education, work, and public service access (UN report).
- Measurement matters because the latest UN and CDC updates show that better reporting makes disparities visible, and visible disparities are more likely to be addressed (UN DIS report 2024; CDC DHDS datasets page).
The numbers in this dataset do not suggest a small edge case. They describe a broad, persistent, and measurable inclusion gap across the global population, the U.S. population, and key institutional systems.