Data & Statistics on Disability

The linkage between poverty and disability is strong and goes in both directions. Poverty causes disability through malnutrition, poor health care, and dangerous living conditions. Disability can cause poverty by preventing the full participation of disabled people in the economic and social life of their communities, especially if the proper supports and accommodations are not available. In fact, the qualitative evident suggests that disabled people are significantly poor in developing countries, and more so than non-disabled counterpart.

One problem in studying the link between income, poverty, and disability is the difficulty in obtaining high quality data, especially data that is useful for comparisons across countries. The rate of disability found in household surveys and censuses varies dramatically. This variation results from differing measures of disability, different data collection techniques, and different reactions to survey questions by respondents.

The World Bank, in partnership with other international agencies, is working to expand and improve the collection of disability data in developing countries.

Publications and Reports

World Bank

• Economic Implications of Chronic Illness and Disability in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
  [PDF 4.7MB]
  Edited by Cem Mete
  February 2008
• Disability and Poverty: A Survey of World Bank Poverty Assessments and Implications
  [PDF 249 KB]
  Jeanine Braithwaite and Daniel Mont
  February 2008
• Approaching the measurement of disability prevalence: The case of Zambia
  Article published in an Elsevier Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan/Mar 2008
  [PDF 270 KB]
  Mitchell E. Loeba, at el.
  January 2008
• Disability, Poverty, and Schooling in Developing Countries: Results from 14 Household Surveys
  By Deon Filmer, Development Research Group, World Bank
  January 15, 2008
• Measuring Health and Disability
  [PDF 72KB]
  By Daniel Mont, World Bank
  May 2007
  Article Appeared in The Lancet, Volume 369, Number 9573, 12 May 2007
• Measuring Disability Prevalence
  [PDF 282 KB]
  By Daniel Mont, World Bank
  March 2007
  Also available in MS Word [377KB]
• See me, and do not forget me People with disabilities in Kenya
  [PDF 464KB]
  By Benedicte Ingstad, Lisbet Grut
  February 2007
• Qualitative Survey on Disability and Living Standards in Georgia
  [PDF 637KB]
  Final Draft Analysis Report prepared by PA Consulting for World Bank Disability and Development Team
  December 11, 2006
• This is my life - Living with a disability in Yemen - A qualitative study
  [PDF 402KB]
  SINTEF Report for World Bank
  By Lisbet Grut and Benedicte Ingstad
  September 24, 2006
• How many disabled people are there world wide?
  [FAQs]
• Measuring Disability on Censuses and Surveys
  Lecture Event on November 09, 2006
  • The Definition and Measurement of Disability No.1 [PPT 94KB]
  • The Definition and Measurement of Disability No.2 [PPT 95KB]
• World Development Indicators 2006
• Using qualitative methods in studying the link between disability and poverty - Developing a methodology and pilot testing in Kenya
  [PDF 217KB]
  SINTEF Report for World Bank
  By Lisbet Grut, Benedicte Ingstad
  June 29, 2005

Non-World Bank

• Disability Data: Survey and Methods Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean
  [www.iadb.org]
  By Andres Montes and Ernest Massiah, Inter-American Development Bank

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Related Links

• World Bank: Statistical Capacity Building Program
• World Bank: Development Gateway Data and Statistics
• World Bank: Ed Stats - Education Statistics
• World Bank: Gender Stats - Database on Gender Statistics
• World Bank: HNP Stats - Health, Nutrition and Population Statistics
• Inter-American Development Bank: Data on Disability
• United Nations: Disability Statistics
• UNICEF: Child Disability, Statistical Tables
• Washington Group on Disability Statistics

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