Up to 1 in 24 (27%) Adults in U.S. Have Some Type of Disability.

Percentage of adults with functional disability types:

• 12.1 percent of U.S. adults have a mobility disability with serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
• 12.8 percent of U.S. adults have a cognition disability with serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
• 7.2 percent of U.S. adults have an independent living disability with difficulty doing errands alone.
• 6.1 percent of U.S. adults are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing.
• 4.8 percent of U.S. adults have a vision disability with blindness or serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.
• 3.6 percent of U.S. adults have a self-care disability with difficulty dressing or bathing.

Disability and Health

Adults with disabilities are more likely to have obesity, smoke, have heart disease, and have diabetes:

• 41.6 percent of adults with a disability are obese while 29.6 percent of adults without a disability are obese.
• 21.9 percent of adults with a disability smoke while 10.9 percent of adults without a disability smoke.
• 9.6 percent of adults with a disability have heart disease while 3.4 percent of adults without a disability have heart disease.
• 15.9 percent of adults with a disability have diabetes while 7.6 percent of adults without a disability have diabetes.

Disability and Health Care Access

Health care access barriers for working-age adults include

• 1 in 4 adults with disabilities 18 to 44 years do not have a usual health care provider
• 1 in 4 adults with disabilities 18 to 44 years have an unmet health care need because of cost in the past year
• 1 in 5 adults with disabilities 45 to 64 years did not have a routine check-up in the past year

Making a difference

Public health is for all of us.

Join CDC and its partners as we work together to improve the health of people with disabilities.

• Building inclusive health program
• Improving access to health care

• Promoting healthy living

• Monitoring public health data
• Researching and reducing health disparities

View infographic and references at: www.cdc.gov/disabilities/

Contact us: disabilityandhealthbranch@cdc.gov

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disability and Health Data System (DHDS) [Internet]. [updated 2023 May; cited 2023 May 15]. Available from: http://dhds.cdc.gov