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On 11 December 2024, the Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the European Parliament has published a study on statistical data on persons with disabilities, which the committee on Employment and Social Affairs had previously requested at this initial state of the 2024 – 2029 term.
According to the study, about 7.2 per cent of persons aged 16 and over living in private households have declared a severe disability and about 19.6 per cent have reported a moderate disability. Adding both percentages, one can estimate a disability rate in the European Union of almost 30 per cent. The study includes as severe disabilities vision, hearing and walking limitations, but it ignores speaking limitations in its scope.
A breakdown by Member State shows that the definition of people with disabilities highly varies across nations. At the very top, Latvia considers that 34 per cent of its population is suffering from some form of disability, while Bulgaria ranks last with just 10 per cent. In particular for what relates to severe disabilities, Spain flies at the top with 10 per cent of its population being considered in such difficult situation, with Bulgaria at the bottom again with 2.2 per cent.
Persons with disabilities living in institutions represent between 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent of the European Union population. This low percentage is aligned with the general trend to the so-called deinstitutionalisation policy.
With regards to education, children with an official decision of special educational need represented about 4.2 per cent, though there is a great variability among Member States. Again, we can observe a significant difference if we compare our various nations: in Latvia, more than 15 per cent of minors are in special education, whereas in Luxembourg the figure does not even reach 1 per cent.
About 22.2 per cent of young persons with disabilities aged 18 – 24 were early school leavers in comparison with 8.4 per cent of young persons without disabilities. In Romania, the astounding percentage is above 65 per cent, followed by Hungary with 46 per cent.
As for the labour market, the disability employment gap amounted to 22 per cent in the European Union in 2023. Around 51 per cent of people with disabilities are employed, well below the employment rate of 73 per cent among people without disabilities. Once more, the EU 27 present varying situations, with the Czech Republic employing almost 67 per cent of its people with disabilities at the very top, and Bulgaria barely 27 per cent.
Quota schemes for the employment of people with disabilities do not exist in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries; in those where they exist, the disability employment quota varies from 3 per cent to 6 per cent.
On the other hand, 28.8 per cent of people with disabilities live at risk of poverty or social exclusion, in comparison with 18 per cent of persons without a disability. The Member State with the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion for people with disabilities is Estonia (38 per cent, that is, over one third of the total); the lowest risk is presented in Slovakia (13 per cent).
About 5.3 per cent of persons aged 16 to 64 received a disability pension but there are big differences across Member States; Estonia and Belgium rank top, respectively with 13 per cent and 12 per cent, while Greece and Slovenia offer below 2 per cent. It is interesting to note that the average percentage of persons receiving a disability pension is below the percentage of persons declaring a severe disability.
In terms of digital skills, 81.2 per cent of persons with disabilities use the Internet, as opposed to 93.4 per cent of persons without disabilities. The Union nation with the highest usage of the Internet by people with disabilities is Ireland (an impressive 100 per cent); at the other end of the spectrum lies Bulgaria (53 per cent).
Source of image: European Commission, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion