People with Disabilities: A Texas Profile

Table 5: Number of Individuals in U.S. by Age Category and Disability Type, 2011
Age Category and Disability
Total Number of
Individuals in U.S.
by Age Category
Total Number
of Individuals
with Disability
Percentage with
Disability in Age
Category
Population under 5 years of age 20,064,356 166,470 0.8%
With a hearing difficulty 116,904 0.6%
With a vision difficulty 98,433 0.5%
Population 5 to 17 years of age 53,710,173 2,780,158 5.2%
With a hearing difficulty 338,782 0.6%
With a vision difficulty 419,949 0.8%
With a cognitive difficulty 2,096,304 3.9%
With an ambulatory difficulty 350,779 0.7%
With a self‐care difficulty 503,959 0.9%
Population 18 to 64 years of age 192,699,903 19,582,613 10.2%
With a hearing difficulty 3,988,796 2.1%
With a vision difficulty 3,377,037 1.8%
With a cognitive difficulty 8,198,444 4.3%
With an ambulatory difficulty 10,071,515 5.2%
With a self‐care difficulty 3,628,054 1.9%
With an independent living difficulty 6,946,046 3.6%
Population 65 years of age and over 40,086,253 14,658,874 36.6%
With a hearing difficulty 6,030,390 15.0%
With a vision difficulty 2,727,843 6.8%
With a cognitive difficulty 3,783,900 9.4%
With an ambulatory difficulty 9,470,278 23.6%
With a self‐care difficulty 3,550,196 8.9%
With an independent living difficulty 6,491,548 16.2%
Table notes: 2011 ACS summary table data. Not all disability questions were asked to the individuals in each age
category. Survey participants were asked to report serious difficulties and could report having several disabilities.
Recent National Labor Force Trends for Individuals with Disabilities
Labor force trends can be illustrated through unemployment, labor force participation, and employment
rates. The unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities is higher than for individuals without
disabilities. In 2011, the average annual unemployment rate for individuals without a disability was 8.7
percent compared to 15 percent for individuals with a disability. Figure 3 illustrates that the annual
unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities was higher than for individuals without disabilities
from 2009–2012. Because data for earlier years are not available, the effects of the 2007 to 2009
recession on the unemployment rates presented in Figure 3 are unknown.
12 Texas Workforce Investment Council