Facts and Figures

Here are some general statements about the numbers and percentages of people living with disabilities in the United Kingdom.

A recent survey showed that 52 per cent of people who qualified as disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and had rights not to be treated unfairly because of their disability or health condition did not consider themselves to be disabled.

Disabled people are more than twice as likely as non-disabled people to have no qualifications (26% as opposed to 10%). (Source: Office of National Statistics)

General Disability

5% of people with any form of disability use a wheelchair (DDA).
17% of disabled people are born with their main disability. Therefore 83% become disabled during their lifetime (DDA).
At least 20% of the current population has a ‘registered’ disability –
with the figures increasing year on year (DDA).
250,000 people in the UK live with Aphasia - a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions, for example as the result of stroke, head injury or other illness (Speakability).

Visual Impairment

There were 2 million adults in Britain with a 'seeing difficulty' that can not be corrected by wearing spectacles (DDA).
In 2002, 4% of blind and partially sighted adults in Britain were Braille readers (Centre for Accessible Environment).
1 million people in UK with vision problems (RNIB).
10-20,000 Braille users (RNIB).

Hearing Impairment and Deafness

1 in 7, or 14%, of people have a hearing loss (RNID).
Out of approximately 8.7 million hard of hearing people in the UK, it is estimated that 50,000 use sign language as their first or preferred language. (RNID).
There are an estimated 50,000 British Sign Language users (RNID).
There are about 23,000 deafblind people in the UK (RNID).

Learning Disability

1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability (Mencap).
200 babies are born with a learning disability every week (Mencap).
9 out of 10 people with a learning disability are bullied.
more than 29,000 people with a severe or profound learning disability live at home with carers aged over 70.

Mental Health

One in four people will be affected by mental ill health in the course of their life. (Source: Mind).
Mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, now account for more Incapacity Benefit claims than back pain (Source: Mind, Stress and mental health in the workplace, 2005).

We are grateful to Living Options who sourced some of these statistics.