Disabled World: Revised/Updated: 2018/12/07
Synopsis: Recent disability news and information for the USA and surrounding Americas, includes updates on U.S. disabilities such as facts, statistics, rules and law changes.
Today an estimated 39,395,000 people in the United States had a disability, or 14.8% of the population age 5 and over. The number of U.S. adults reporting a disability increased by 3.4 million between 1999 and 2005. 12.1% of the U.S. Adult Population Aged 21-64 Years Reported a Disability in 2008.
In addition, an estimated 7,092,000 people, or 2.7% of the U.S. population 5 and over, have difficulty performing self-care activities, also known as Activities of Daily Living, such as dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home.
The Social Security Administration estimates that 3 in 10 of today's 20-year-olds will suffer a disability before reaching 67 and also reports 69% of the private sector work force has no long-term disability insurance. Essentially, 7 out of 10 workers would have to rely on their own personal savings, limited state-run insurance or Social Security for replacement income in the event they could not work because of a disability.
Statue of Liberty, New York, America on a foggy morning - Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash
In the year 2008, an estimated 16.9 percent (plus or minus 0.20 percentage points) of non-institutionalized civilian veterans aged 21 to 64 years reported having a VA service-connected disability in the United States. In other words, 2,217,000 out of 13,102,700 non-institutionalized civilian veterans aged 21 to 64 years reported having a VA service-connected disability in the United States in 2008 (U.S. Veteran Facts and Statistics).
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