DISABILITY ACROSS THE WORLD
WHO estimates that more than a billion people are estimated to live with some form of disability, or about 15% of the world’s population. This is higher than previous estimate of around 10%, dating from the 1970s.
According to the World Health Survey around 785 million (15.6%) persons 15 years and older live with a disability. Of these, it is estimated that 110 million people (2.2%) have very significant difficulties in functioning, while the Global Burden of Disease estimates that 190 million (3.8%) have “severe disability” – the equivalent of disability inferred for conditions such as quadriplegia, severe depression, or blindness.
Only the Global Burden of Disease measures childhood disabilities (0–14 years), which is estimated to be 95 million (5.1%) children, of whom 13 million (0.7%) have “severe disability”.
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. Yet, eighty per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
Disability rates are significantly higher among groups with lower educational attainment in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 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.
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