Population with disability

Data extracted in: July 2024.

Planned article update: December 2025.

Highlights

More than a quarter (26.8%) of people aged 16 years and over in the EU had a disability (activity limitation) in 2023.

In 2023, men in the EU were less likely than women to report a disability.

Share of people with a disability (activity limitation), by sex and age, EU, 2023
(%)
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 2023 reference year; they cover people aged 16 years and over.

This article is 1 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.

Full article

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

More than a quarter of people aged 16 years and over in the EU had a disability (activity limitation) in 2023

In the EU, 26.8% of people aged 16 years and over reported some or severe long-standing limitations in their usual activities due to health problems (hereafter referred to as a disability) in 2023: 19.6% reported some limitation and 7.2% reported a severe limitation – see Figure 1.

Across the EU countries, the share of people who reported a disability in 2023 ranged from 11.9% in Luxembourg, 13.6% in Bulgaria and 13.8% in Malta to 40.7% in Latvia. Looking in more detail, Estonia recorded the highest share of people reporting a severe limitation (11.5%), while Latvia had the highest share of people reporting some limitation (30.6%).

Figure 1: Share of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (activity limitation), 2023
(%)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

Self-reported disability analysed by age and sex

In 2023, men were less likely than women to report a disability; see Figure 2. This pattern was repeated in all of the EU countries, with the widest gender gaps recorded in Romania, Portugal, Latvia and Finland (7.9 to 9.7 percentage points). Cyprus and Slovenia had the smallest differences between the sexes, as the share of women reporting a disability was at most 1.0 point above the corresponding share for men.

Figure 2: Share of people aged 16 years and over with a disability (activity limitation), by sex, 2023
(%)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_silc_12)

A further analysis shows that this gender gap was present in the EU in 2023 regardless of the severity of activity limitation – see Table 1. The share of people reporting a disability with severe limitation was 1.4 points higher among women than among men, while the gap was wider for people with some limitation, at 3.5 points.

The gender gap for severe limitation – with higher shares for women – peaked among the EU countries at 3.2 points in Latvia. Ireland was an exception in that it recorded a higher share of men than women reporting severe limitation (0.5 points difference).
The gender gap for some limitation – again with higher shares for women – peaked at 7.9 points in Romania, followed by Portugal (7.4 points) and Finland (7.0 points). The share of people with some limitation was almost always higher for men than for women, with Cyprus the only exception in that it recorded a higher share of men than women reporting some limitation (0.9 points difference).

In this context, it should be remembered that the data are not age standardised and that a greater share of women than men are in older age groups.

Table 1: Distribution of people aged 16 years and over by disability (activity limitation), analysed by sex, 2023
(%)
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 2023, the share of people aged 16–24 years who reported (some or severe) disability was 8.3% within the EU; the highest share was recorded among people aged 85 years and over, at 74.8%.

A gender health gap concerning (some and severe) disability could be observed for all age groups in 2023.

The gap was narrowest for the 3 youngest age groups (covering people aged 16 to 44 years), with shares 1.4–2.0 points higher for women.
It was somewhat wider for the 3 age groups covering people aged 45 to 74 years, with shares 2.6–3.9 points higher for women.
It was widest among older people: 5.7 points higher for people in the age group 75–84 years and 6.3 points higher for people aged 85 years and over.

However, when focusing just on people reporting severe disability, the gender gap in the EU in 2023 was relatively narrow, at 1.4 points across all age groups. A lower share of women (than men) reported severe disability in the two youngest age groups (people aged 16 to 24 years and 25 to 34 years). The shares were higher for women in all older age groups, although there was almost no gender health gap for severe disability for people aged 35 to 44 years, 55 to 64 years or 65 to 74 years. However, the widest gender gaps for severe disability were recorded in the age groups 75–84 years and 85 years and over, where the shares for women were higher than for men by 2.8 points and 7.3 points, respectively.

Figure 3: Share of people with a disability (activity limitation), by sex and age, EU, 2023
(%)
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, more than a third (35.4%) of people aged 16 years and over in the 1st income quintile (the 20% of people with the lowest income) reported a disability in 2023. This figure could be compared with 32.3% for the 2nd quintile, 27.2% for the 3rd (middle) quintile, 22.3% for the 4th quintile and 17.9% 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 2023, 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 exceptions among the EU countries were Romania and 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 and over with a disability (activity limitation), by income quintile, 2023
(%)
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 2023 were observed in Croatia (35.8 points), Latvia (33.6 points), Estonia (33.1 points) and Lithuania (32.7 points). By contrast, relatively little difference was observed between the shares for the lowest and highest income quintiles in Slovakia (3.8 points), Luxembourg (5.9 points) and Greece (6.7 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, 37.4% of people aged 16 years and over having completed, at most, lower secondary education reported a disability in 2023. This can be compared with 25.8% among people having completed upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education and 17.9% among people with a tertiary level of educational attainment. This health gap between educational attainment levels was apparent in all EU countries, with the same general pattern as that observed for the EU as a whole.

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 (38.3 points), followed by Cyprus (33.5 points). The narrowest gap among the EU countries was observed in Denmark (12.6 points).

Figure 5: Share of people aged 16 years and over with a disability (activity limitation), by educational attainment level, 2023
(%)
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 and 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).