One in Eight US Adults Say They Have a Disability in Census Poll

For the second month in a row, more than one in eight American adults report having a disability.

(Bloomberg) — For the second month in a row, more than one in eight American adults report having a disability.

Almost 34 million Americans age 16 years and over have a disability, according to the Current Population Survey, a monthly poll of households conducted by the Census Bureau. The figure is up by more than 4.9 million over the past three years.

Read More: Long Covid Opens a New Gender Gap With Surge in Disabilities

During the pandemic period, the share of US women in the workforce with a disability has generally been outpacing the figure for men.

Last month, that gap narrowed. A record 3.6 million men had a disability in July, while the number of women reporting one fell by 81,000 from the peak of 3.35 million reached the previous month.

The survey defines a person with a disability who has at least one of the following conditions: is deaf or has serious difficulty hearing; is blind or has serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses; has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition; has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs; has difficulty dressing or bathing; or has difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition.

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