Leonard Cheshire’s Disability Data Report 2018

In preparation for the Global Disability Summit on 24 July 2018 and with funding from UK aid, Leonard Cheshire developed a framework and collected an initial body of international data in a report entitled ‘Global Disability Data Review: A collation and analysis of disability data from 40 countries’. The report provides an overview of the current disability data landscape in 40 countries and identifies where there are current gaps in bodies of data, particularly in light of the indicators linked to the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  

It underscores the fact that we can no longer maintain the assumption that “there is no data”. It provides a framework to show the global community how existing information can be accessed and analysed. In conjunction with the latest analysis from the Washington Group on Disability Statistics and the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), it promises to help provide a growing body of disability data that can be easily accessed and analysed.

The report provides background on the project, and discusses at greater length the findings, limitations and potential next steps needed to fill the gaps in global disability data. The Disability Data Portal highlights the key findings and data from the report through data visualisations.

A sample of 40 countries with a post-2006 survey or census was chosen for analysis; to coincide with the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to align with a human-rights based approach to disability. Where there were significant gaps in up to date data, older sources such as World Health Survey 2002-24 were used. Datasets were only included if they were representative of a country or sub-population. 

Sources were identified from the DHS database, World Bank microdata catalogue, the ILO Labour Force Survey data bank, International Household Survey Network, Global Health Data Exchange database and IPUMS. 

Read the Disability Data Report 2018

Disability Data Initiative (DDI): Disability Data Report 2021

In conjunction with the 14th Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Programme on Disability and the Fordham Research Consortium on Disability co-organized the launch of the Disability Data Initiative (DDI). The resulting Disability Data Report 2021 provides a systematic analysis of the disability questions in national censuses and household surveys globally between 2009 and 2018 and indicators disaggregated across disability status for 41 countries with census or household survey data that are based on internationally comparable disability questions.

Visit the Disability Data Initiative (DDI) website