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Key Facts and Figures

• General demographics
• Living standards
• Employment
• Education
• Post-19 education
• Independent living
• Discrimination
• Leisure, social and cultural activities
• Participation
• Transport
• Communications
• Justice system
• Housing

The ODI publishes annual statistical indicators to monitor progress towards disability equality. To view the latest indicators please visit the Disability Equality Indicators page.

General Demographics

• There are over 10 million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability in the UK [1]
• In the UK, the most commonly reported impairments are those that affect mobility, lifting or carrying [2]
• The prevalence of disability rises with age. Around 1 in 20 children are disabled, compared to around 1 in 7 working age adults and almost 1 in 2 people over state pension age. [3]

Living standards

• A substantially higher proportion of individuals who live in families with disabled members, live in poverty compared to individuals who live in families where no-one is disabled
• 23 per cent of individuals in families with at least one disabled member live in relative income poverty, on a Before Housing Costs basis, compared to 16 per cent of individuals in families with no disabled member [4]
• 29 per cent of children in families with at least one disabled member are in poverty, a significantly higher proportion than the 20 per cent of children in families with no disabled member [5]

Employment

• The employment rate gap between disabled and non disabled people has decreased from around 36% in 2002 to around 30% in 2009 [6]
• However, disabled people are far less likely to be in employment. Although there have been significant improvements in the employment rates of disabled people in the last decade, the employment rates of disabled people are around 47%, compared with around 77% of non-disabled people [7]

Education

• Between 2005/06 and 2008/09, the percentage of pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C has
  • increased from 66.3 per cent to 80.2 per cent for students without Special Educational Needs (SEN)
  • increased from 19.8 per cent to 40.3 per cent for students with SEN without a statement
  • increased from 8.7 per cent to 14.9 per cent for students with SEN with a statement. [8]

Post-19 Education

• Disabled people are around twice as likely not to hold any qualifications compared to non disabled people, and around half as likely to hold a degree level qualification [9]
• 24.3 per cent of working age disabled people do not hold any formal qualification compared to 10 per cent of working age non disabled people [10]
• 11.4 per cent of working age disabled people hold degree-level qualifications compared to 21.8 per cent of working age non disabled people [11]

Independent living

• Over a fifth of disabled people say that they do not frequently have choice and control over their daily lives [12]

Discrimination

• Disabled people are significantly more likely to experience unfair treatment at work than non disabled people. In 2008, 19 per cent of disabled people experienced unfair treatment at work compared to 13 per cent of non disabled people [13]
• Around a third of disabled people experience difficulties, related to their impairment or disability in accessing public, commercial and leisure goods and services [14]

Leisure, social and cultural activities

• Disabled people remain significantly less likely to participate in cultural, leisure and sporting activities than non disabled people. In 2008/09, 51.8 per cent of disabled people engaged in cultural, leisure and sporting activities compared to 69.7 per cent of non disabled people [15]

Participation

• Disabled people are just as likely to have engaged in civic involvement as non disabled people. In 2008/09, 60 per cent of disabled people undertook at least one activity of civic involvement in the last 12 months compared to 62 per cent of non disabled people [16]
• However, disabled people are significantly less likely to engage in formal volunteering. In 2008/09, 21 per cent of disabled people engaged in formal volunteering at least once a month compared with 27 per cent of non disabled people [17]

Transport

• Around a fifth of disabled people report having difficulties, related to their impairment or disability, in accessing transport [18]
• Between 2005/06 and 2007/08, the percentage of buses with low floor wheelchair access increased from 50.4% to 62% [19]

Communications

• Around half of households with a disabled member have access to the internet compared to over two thirds of households with no disabled members [20]

Justice System

• Across all age groups, disabled people are significantly more likely to be victims of crime than non disabled people. This gap is largest amongst 16-34 year olds where 42 per cent of disabled people reported having been a victim of crime compared to 32 per cent of non disabled people [21]
• Disabled people are also less likely than their non disabled peers to think the Criminal Justice System (CJS) is fair. This gap is largest amongst 16-34 year olds where 53 per cent of disabled people think that the CJS is fair compared to 64 per cent of non disabled people [22]

Housing

• Although the gap in non-decent accommodation has closed over recent years, 1 in 3 households with a disabled person still live in non-decent accommodation [23]
• 1 in 5 disabled people requiring adaptations to their home believe that their accommodation is not suitable [24]

Footnotes

1. Source: Family Resources Survey 2008/09
2. Source: Family Resources Survey 2008/09
3. Source: Family Resources Survey 2008/09
4. Source: Households Below Average Income 2008/09
5. Source: Households Below Average Income 2008/09
6. Source: Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 2002 and Quarter 2, 2009
7. Source: Labour Force Survey– Quarter 2 , 2009
8. Source: National Pupil Database 2005/06-2008/09
9. Source: Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 2008
10. Source: Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 2008
11. Source: Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2, 2008
12. Source: ONS Opinions Survey 2009
13. Source: Fair Treatment at Work Survey 2008
14. Source: ONS Opinions Survey 2005-2009
15. Source: Taking Part Survey 2008/09
16. Source: Citizenship Survey 2008/09
17. Source: Citizenship Survey 2008/09
18. Source: ONS Opinions Survey 2009
19. Source: Department for Transport’s Annual Sample Survey of Bus Operators
20. Source: British Social Attitudes Survey, 2006
21. Source: British Crime Survey 2008/09
22. Source: British Crime Survey 2008/09
23. Source: English House Condition Survey 2007/08
24. Source: Survey of English Housing 2007/08

Disability prevalance

• Download disability prevalence factsheet (PDF, 1 page, 24 KB) (last updated: 01 June 2010)

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