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Population with Any Disability

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This indicator reports the percentage of the total civilian non-institutionalized population with a disability. This indicator is relevant because disabled individuals may require targeted services and outreach by providers.

Source

Source Description

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.

Citation: U.S. Census Bureau: UNDERSTANDING AND USING AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA: WHAT ALL DATA USERS NEED TO KNOW (2018).

For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.

Methodology

Counts of population subgroups and total area population data are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Mapped data are summarized to 2023 census tract boundaries. Disability status is classified in the ACS according to yes/no responses to questions (17 – 19) about six types of disability concepts. For children under 5 years old, hearing and vision difficulty are used to determine disability status. For children between the ages of 5 and 14, disability status is determined from hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, and self-care difficulties. For people aged 15 years and older, they are considered to have a disability if they have difficulty with any one of the six difficulty types. Indicator statistics are measured as a percentage of the total universe (non-institutionalized) population using the following formula:

Percentage = [Subgroup Population] / [Total Population] * 100

For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.

Data Breakouts Available

  • Population with Any Disability by Age Group, Percent
  • Population with Any Disability by Disability Status
  • Population with Any Disability by Race Alone, Total
  • Population with Any Disability by Race Alone, Percent
  • Population with Any Disability by Ethnicity Alone
  • Population with Any Disability by Age Group, Total
  • Population with Any Disability by Gender
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