Population with disability

Data extracted in: July 2025.

Planned article update: December 2026.

Highlights

Nearly a quarter (23.9%) of people aged 16 years or over in the EU had a disability (activity limitation) in 2024.

In 2024, males in the EU were less likely than females to report a disability.

Share of people with a disability (activity limitation), by sex and age, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

This article presents an overview of the share of people in the European Union (EU) with a disability (activity limitation). It focuses on general long-standing limitations in usual activities due to health problems (see the ‘data sources’ section for more information); the total share is broken down between people with some limitation and people with a severe limitation.

The data come from the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) and relate to the 2024 reference year; they cover people aged 16 years or over.

This article is one of a set of statistical articles on disability which forms part of the online publications Disability statistics and Health in the European Union – facts and figures.

Self-reported disability (limitation in usual activities due to health problems)

Nearly a quarter of people aged 16 years or over in the EU had a disability (activity limitation) in 2024

In the EU, 23.9% of people aged 16 years or over reported some or severe long-standing limitations in their usual activities due to health problems (hereafter referred to as a disability) in 2024: 17.2% reported some limitation and 6.7% reported a severe limitation – see Figure 1.

Across the EU countries, the share of people who reported a disability in 2024 ranged from 12.7% in Bulgaria, 14.2% in Malta and 14.5% in Italy to 41.2% in Latvia. Looking in more detail, Latvia recorded the highest share of people reporting a severe limitation (11.1%) as well as the highest share of people reporting some limitation (30.1%).

Figure 1: Share of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (activity limitation), 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

Self-reported disability analysed by age and sex

In 2024, males were less likely than females to report a disability; see Figure 2. This pattern was repeated in all of the EU countries, with the widest gender gaps recorded in Portugal, the Netherlands and Finland (6.8 to 9.3 percentage points). Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia had the smallest differences between the sexes, as the share of females reporting a disability was at most 2.0 points above the corresponding share for males.

Figure 2: Share of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (activity limitation), by sex, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

A further analysis shows that this gender gap was present in the EU in 2024 regardless of the severity of the activity limitation – see Table 1. The share of people reporting a disability with severe limitation was 1.2 points higher among females than among males, while the gap was wider for people with some limitation, at 3.4 points.

The gender gap for severe limitation – with higher shares for females – peaked among the EU countries at 1.9 points in Greece and France. Ireland had the narrowest gap, 0.1 points difference.
The gender gap for some limitation – again with higher shares for females – peaked at 7.6 points in Portugal, followed by the Netherlands and Finland (both 5.8 points) while the narrowest gap was in Cyprus, where the share for females was 0.3 points higher than the share for males.

In this context, it should be remembered that the data are not age standardised and that there tends to be a greater share of females than males in older age groups.

Table 1: Distribution of people aged 16 years or over by disability (activity limitation), analysed by sex, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

Older people were more likely than younger people to report a disability

Self-reported disability has a distinct age pattern, as people in higher age groups are more likely than people in lower age groups to report some or severe limitations – see Figure 3. In 2024, the share of people aged 16 to 24 years who reported (some or severe) disability was 7.1% within the EU; the highest share was recorded among people aged 85 years or over, at 72.3%.

A gender gap concerning (some and severe) disability could be observed for all age groups in 2024.

The gap was narrowest for 5 of the 6 youngest age groups (covering people aged 16 to 44 years and 55 to 74 years), with shares 1.5–2.3 points higher for females.
It was somewhat wider for the age group covering people aged 45 to 54 years, with the share 3.7 points higher for women.
It was widest among older people: 5.4 points higher for women in the age group 75–84 years and 6.3 points higher for women aged 85 years or over.

However, when focusing just on people reporting severe disability, the gender gap in the EU in 2024 was relatively narrow, at 1.2 points among people aged 16 years or over. For the 5 youngest age groups (people aged 16 to 24 years through to people aged 55 to 64 years), the shares of people reporting severe disability were higher for females (than males), with gender gaps of 0.1 to 0.6 points. By contrast, a lower share of women (than men) reported severe disability among people aged 65 to 74 years. However, the widest gender gaps for severe disability were recorded in the age groups 75 to 84 years and 85 years or over, where the shares for women were higher than for men by 2.4 points and 5.0 points, respectively.

Figure 3: Share of people with a disability (activity limitation), by sex and age, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

Self-reported disability analysed by income and educational attainment

People with higher income levels were less likely to report a disability

In the EU, close to a third (33.0%) of people aged 16 years or over in the 1st income quintile (the 20% of people with the lowest income) reported a disability in 2024. This figure could be compared with 29.3% for the 2nd quintile, 24.0% for the 3rd (middle) quintile, 19.2% for the 4th quintile and 15.1% for the 5th (highest) income quintile (the 20% of people with the highest income). In other words, the prevalence of self-reported disability was highest in the lowest income quintile and was progressively lower among higher income quintiles.

Figure 4 shows the share of people who reported a disability and its relation to income: for reasons of readability, the figure shows the shares for the lowest, middle and highest quintiles only.

In 2024, almost all EU countries showed a similar pattern to that observed for the EU: higher shares of people who reported a disability were recorded for the 1st (lowest) income quintile and lower shares for the 5th (highest) income quintile, while the shares for the 3rd income quintile were between these 2 values – see Figure 4. The only exception among the EU countries was Slovakia, where a higher share of people reported a disability within the 3rd income quintile than within the lowest income quintile.

Figure 4: Share of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (activity limitation), by income quintile, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

The largest differences in the share of people with a disability between people in the lowest and highest income quintiles in 2024 were observed in Latvia (37.5 points), Croatia (36.2 points) and Estonia (32.7 points). By contrast, relatively little difference was observed between the shares for the lowest and highest income quintiles in Slovakia (3.3 points), Italy (5.5 points), Luxembourg (7.3 points; 2022 data). and Greece (8.0 points).

People with a tertiary level of educational attainment were less likely to report a disability

There are also clear differences when looking at the relationship between disability and educational attainment levels – see Figure 5. In the EU, 32.9% of people aged 16 years or over having completed, at most, lower secondary education reported a disability in 2024. This can be compared with 23.7% among people having completed upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education and 15.7% among people with a tertiary level of educational attainment. This gap between educational attainment levels was apparent in nearly all EU countries, with the same general pattern as that observed for the EU as a whole. The only exception among the EU countries was Latvia, where a lower share of people reported a disability among people having completed, at most, lower secondary education than among people having completed upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education.

The widest gap in the share of people reporting a disability between people with the highest and the lowest educational attainment levels was observed in Croatia (37.7 points), followed by Cyprus (35.4 points). The narrowest gap among the EU countries was observed in Sweden (12.5 points).

Figure 5: Share of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (activity limitation), by educational attainment level, 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_07)

Source data for tables and graphs

Population with a disability: tables and figures

Data sources

EU-SILC is the source of comparative statistics on income distribution and social inclusion in the EU. It provides annual data for the EU countries as well as most EFTA and enlargement countries on income, poverty, social exclusion and other aspects of living conditions.

The reference population for EU-SILC is limited to private households and their current members residing in the territory of the surveying country at the time of data collection. People living in collective households and institutions are generally excluded from the reference population; this constitutes a limitation for disability statistics. All household members are surveyed, but only those aged 16 years or over are interviewed.

The variables collected are used to assess the limitations people have experienced – because of health problems – in carrying out usual activities (for at least the previous 6 months); the resulting measure is called the global activity limitation indicator (GALI). This is used as a proxy to measure disability. It is also used to calculate the healthy life years indicator. GALI, together with variables on self-perceived health and chronic morbidity (see the article on self-perceived health statistics) constitute the minimum European health module.

The source is documented in more detail in this background article, which provides information on the scope of the data, its legal basis, the methodology employed, as well as related concepts and definitions.

Limitations of the data

All of the indicators presented in this article are derived from self-reported data, so they are, to a certain extent, affected by respondents’ subjective perception as well as by their social and cultural background. Despite their subjective nature, the statistics that are presented are considered to be relevant and reliable estimators of the health status of populations as well as good predictors of health care needs; they are also valuable for trend analyses and for measuring socioeconomic disparities.

EU-SILC does not cover the institutionalised population, for example, people living in health and social care institutions who are more likely to face activity limitations than people living in private households. It is therefore likely that, to some degree, this data source under-estimates the share of people with a disability. Furthermore, the indicators presented are not age-standardised and thus reflect the current national age structures. Finally, despite substantial and continuous efforts for harmonisation, the implementation of EU-SILC is organised nationally, which may impact the results presented, for example, due to differences in the formulation of questions or their precise coverage.

Context

Disability statistics are used to measure the impact and effectiveness of EU policy aimed at ensuring equal rights for people with disabilities. The EU has adopted several strategies aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities:

by reducing discrimination and inequalities
by providing support to enjoy fully their human rights, fundamental freedoms and EU rights on an equal basis with others.

In light of this, the 2021-2030 EU Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities sets EU objectives and priority actions in several areas, such as accessibility, citizens’ rights, quality of life, equal access and non-discrimination, and the promotion of the rights of people with disabilities. To find out more, please visit the webpage on the monitoring framework for the objectives and actions of this strategy.

To ensure sound monitoring and reporting of this topic, the European Commission is reinforcing the collection of data on the situation of people with disabilities in areas where knowledge gaps have been identified, for example in relation to access to the labour market.

The EU is also a signatory of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Explore further

Database

Disability (dsb), see

Disability prevalence (dsb_p)

Health status and determinants (dsb_sd)

Health (hlth), see

Health status (hlth_state)

Functional and activity limitations (hlth_fal)

Thematic section

Publications

Methodology

Global activity limitation indicator (GALI) implementation guidelines
Income and living conditions (ilc) (SIMS metadata file)
Health variables of EU-SILC (ESMS metadata file – hlth_silc_01_esms)
EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) methodology
Health variables in EU-SILC

External links

Health

Disability

Legislation

Legal framework from 2021: EU statistics on income and living conditions