Disability in China

Disability in China is common, and according to the United Nations, approximately 83 million people in China are estimated to have a disability.

Of the total number of disabled individuals, men account for 42.77 million (51.55%) and women account for 40.19 million (48.45%), making the gender ratio 106.42 disabled men for every 100 disabled women. Furthermore, 20.71 million (25.96%) individuals of the disabled community reside in urban areas, whereas 62.25 million (75.04%) in rural areas.

According to the China Disabled Persons' Federation, approximately 12.33 million (14.86%) people have visual disabilities, 20.04 million (24.16%) have a hearing disability, 1.27 million (1.53%) have a speech disability, 24.12 million (29.07%) have a physical disability, 5.54 million (6.68%) have an intellectual disability, 6.14 million (7.40%) have a mental disability, and 13.52 million (16.30%) have multiple disabilities.

There are currently only two published national sample surveys on disability conducted in China. The First National Sample Survey on Disability was published in 1987, and the Second was published in 2006. Over the past 19 years, there has been an increase in the total number of disabled individuals and in the proportion of disabled people to the total population.

Using the data from the two surveys, researchers found that the crude disability rate increased 1.5% from 1987 (4.89%) to 2006 (6.39%). However, once the data was adjusted to accommodate modified age structures and the change in population pyramid with the higher proportion of elderly in 2006, the adjusted disability rate increased by 0.5% over the time period. Although the frequency of visual, hearing, speech, physical, and intellectual disabilities did not depend on sex or place of residence (urban vs. rural) over time, there was an increase of mental disability across males, females, and rural residents that did not occur among urban inhabitants.

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