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Demographics

European Union

General:

Of the population aged between 16 and 64 years, in 25 European countries, 44.6 million i.e. one in six stated that they had a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD).

As can been seen below, the average percentage of people with disabilities in a European country is 15.7% and there is very little difference between the average proportions of males and females. The country with the lowest proportion of disabilities is Romania (5.8%) and the highest is Finland (32.2%). However, we must take account of the fact that these numbers are based on people stating that they have a disability, that is the answers may have been influenced by cultural differences (see tables below).

Table 1a: Percentage of population aged 16-64 stating they have an LSHPD, in each EU member state (in 2002), broken down by gender.

Table 1b: Percentage of population aged 16-64 stating they have an LSHPD, in each acceding, candidate and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) country (in 2002) broken down by gender. And the geographical aggregate.

Source: Eurostat, Statistics in Focus, Employment of disabled people in Europe in 2002, pp2-3

Note: Abbreviations for each country are listed at the end of the page.

Education:

There seems to be a correlation between the level of education achieved and the prevalence of an LSHPD. The rates of LSHPDs are much higher for those with only up to lower secondary education (18.6%) compared to those with post secondary education (11.7%). This is particularly the case in the acceding countries, for example in Cyprus, 21.2% of the population have an LSHPD and have attended only up to lower secondary education, whilst 8.7% of the population have an LSHPD and have post secondary education. (See tables below).

Table 2a: Percentage of population aged 16-64 stating they have an LSHPD, in each EU member state (in 2002), broken down by level of education achieved.

Note:

ISCED 0-2 indicates all persons with up to lower secondary education or second stage of basic education.

ISCED 3 indicates all persons with upper secondary education.

ISCED 4-6 indicates all persons with post secondary non-tertiary or tertiary education.

Table 2b: Percentage of population aged 16-64 stating they have an LSHPD, in each acceding, candidate and EFTA country (in 2002) broken down by level of education achieved. And the geographical aggregate.

Labour Force Participation:

It can be seen that the more severe the disability, the lower is the person's likelihood of participating in the labour force. Only 19.5% of the severely disabled, compared to 67.6% for non-disabled people are employed. It is worth noting that the unemployment rate for someone with an LSHPD is no better or worse than for those without an LSHPD, however this could be due to the fact that many people with disabilities know or believe they are unlikely to find employment and would therefore fall into the inactive section. As you can see, the percentages who are inactive, are much higher for those with a very severe /severe disability (77.5% and 49.8%, respectively) than for those without an LSHPD (26.9%). (See table 3 below).

Table 3: Percentage of population aged 16-64 stating they have an LSHPD, in European member states, acceding, candidate and EFTA countries (in 2002), broken down by participation in the labour force.

Source: Eurostat, Statistics in Focus, Employment of disabled people in Europe in 2002, pp6

Note: The country codes used in this document are as follows:

B (Belgium), DK (Denmark), D (Germany), EL (Greece), E (Spain), FR (France), IRL (Ireland), I (Italy), L (Luxembourg), NL (Netherlands), A (Austria), P (Portugal), FIN (Finland), S (Sweden), UK (United Kingdom), CZ (Czech Republic), EE (Estonia), CY (Cyprus), LT (Lithuania), HU (Hungary), MT (Malta), SL (Slovenia), SK (Slovak Republic), NO (Norway), RO (Romania).

Ireland

General:

The population of Ireland at the time of the 2002 Census was 3,917,203, with a roughly 50/50 split between males and females. A total of 323,707 people were identified in this census as having a disability of some sort, representing 8.3% of the total population. The gender breakdown of this group mirrors that of the general population, with approximately equal numbers of males and females (see Table 1 for the numbers of people, males and females in the general population, the numbers with a disability, and the proportion of the population with a disability).

Table 1 : Breakdown of the population, and the number of people with disability in the total population, by gender.

Source: CSO Census 2002, Table 1a-c, pp 13-15

Rural/Urban Split:

The population of Ireland is more urban than rural at this time, with approximately 60% of people living in towns and cities. The distribution of people with disabilities in urban and rural areas follows this trend, with approximately 61% living in urban areas (see Table 2 below).

Table 2: Breakdown of the population, and of people with disabilities, by urban and rural area of the country.

Source: CSO Census 2002, Vol. 10, Table 1A, page 13

Education :

If we look at the population over the age of 15, when a comparison is made between people with a disability, and people in the general population (i.e. those without disabilities), in terms of the age in which a person's full-time education ceased, figures show a large disparity in the total numbers in each group. The age range 15-19 is when the greatest number of persons in the general public leave school (26.9%), while for people with disabilities, the most likely time to leave school is under 15 years of age (26.85%). Table 3 below gives the overall level of education attended for people with a disability versus the general population. As can be seen a much greater proportion of people with disabilities leave school at primary level or with no formal education (43.3%) compared to the general public (15.1%). The proportion of the general public who complete degrees (13.7%) is nearly three times the proportion of people with disabilities (5.2%).

Table 3: Overall level of education completion.

Source: CSO Census 2002, Vol. 10, Table 23, pp 79

Labour Force Participation:

Table 4: Breakdown of the total number and status of persons in the labour force over age 15.

Source: CSO Census 2002, Vol. 10, Table 9, pp 48-53 7 table 14a, pp67

As can be seen from the above table, the numbers are quite stark. Twice the number of people with disabilities are outside the labour force (81.5%) compared to the total population (41.7%). For those in the labour force, only 14.5% of people with disabilities in Ireland are employed, compared to 53.1% for the total population.

The last column in the table above, gives the labour force participation figures, using the International Labour Organisation's economic status definitions.