Disability Statistics

Disability Statistics

Here are statistics from government agencies, nonprofits, and our own surveys. Our subscribers help us find areas to study.

Prevalence

Around 10% of people in the world have disabilities.

Employment

In 2019, only 19.3% of disabled Americans were employed. They were more likely to work part-time. Some of them dropped out of the labor force because nobody would give them a chance.

About half of deaf people are employed. Many of them aren’t in the labor force.

Blind people don’t fare well either. About 3 in 5 blind people aren’t in the labor force.

Around 1/3 of autistic adults are unemployed. (A US study found 38.6% unemployment and a German study found a rate of 31.6%.) Even if they’re well-educated, they may be stuck in jobs that don’t use their skills.

About 1/5 of adults with intellectual disabilities are unemployed. And nearly 3/10 have never had a job at all.

Many of these people are able to work, but employers may not give them a chance. Even after hiring, employers may drop them because they don’t want to put in the effort of making accommodations. When disabled people are seen as burdens, they get shut out from opportunities to help others.