Disability Statistics - Did you know?
According to the United Nations - around 10 per cent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with a disability. This makes people living with a disablity the world's largest minority!
This figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
In countries with life expectancies over 70 years, individuals spend on average about 8 years, or 11.5 per cent of their life span, living with disabilities.
Disability rates are significantly higher among groups with lower educational attainment in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), says the OECD Secretariat. On average, 19 per cent of less educated people have disabilities, compared to 11 per cent among the better educated. In most OECD countries, women report higher incidents of disability than men. The World Bank estimates that 20 per cent of the world's poorest people have some kind of disability, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged.
Women with disabilities are recognised to be multiply disadvantaged, experiencing exclusion on account of their gender and their disability. Women and girls with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse. A small 2004 survey in Orissa, India, found that virtually all of the women and girls with disabilities were beaten at home, 25 per cent of women with intellectual disabilities had been raped and 6 per cent of women with disabilities had been forcibly sterilized.
According to UNICEF, 30 per cent young homeless people have some kind of disability.
Mortality for children with disabilities may be as high as 80 per cent in countries where under-five mortality as a whole has decreased below 20 per cent, says the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, adding that in some cases it seems as if children are being "weeded out".
Comparative studies on disability legislation shows that only 45 countries have anti-discrimination and other disability-specific laws. These statistics are not limited to over-seas or developing countries.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the 2003 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). One in five people in Australia (3,958,300 or 20.0%) had a reported disability. This rate was much the same for males (19.8%) and females (20.1%).
Disability was defined as any limitation, restriction or impairment, which has lasted, or is likely to last, for at least six months and restricts everyday activities. Examples range from hearing loss which requires the use of a hearing aid, to difficulty dressing due to arthritis, to advanced dementia requiring constant help and supervision.
Of persons aged 15-64 years with a reported disability living in households, 30% had completed year 12 and 13% had completed a bachelor degree or higher. Of those with no disability the respective proportions were 49% and 20%.
The labour force participation rate of persons with a disability was 53% and the unemployment rate was 8.6%. Corresponding rates for those without a disability were 81% and 5.0%.
The median gross personal income per week of persons aged 15-64 years with a reported disability living in households was $255, compared to $501 for those without a disability. Median gross personal income per week decreased with increasing severity of disability. It was lowest ($200 per week) for those with a profound core-activity limitation.
In fact the following chart courtesy of the Employers Forum on Disability (UK), maps out various life stages people go through, and how employers can address disability as a part of the normal working environment. If you would like to find out more about how you can meet your corporate social responsibility and make a lasting change, please contact our Corporate Development Manager on 08 9228 9999.
