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By type of disability. Counties and Aran, areas and provinces

Persons legally recognised as being disabled. By type of disability. Counties, areas and provinces 2004
Physical Visual Hearing Psychological Mentally ill Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,015 102 49 244 236 6 1,652
Alt Empordà 2,134 226 118 747 444 15 3,684
Alt Penedès 2,074 272 144 470 570 8 3,538
Alt Urgell 508 38 26 92 123 4 791
Alta Ribagorça 115 9 10 17 31 0 182
Anoia 2,871 361 169 580 712 16 4,709
Bages 5,281 770 352 803 1,655 12 8,873
Baix Camp 4,050 501 302 1,718 1,232 34 7,837
Baix Ebre 2,093 236 111 442 511 11 3,404
Baix Empordà 2,097 204 150 749 456 12 3,668
Baix Llobregat 22,678 2,565 1,410 3,621 5,872 29 36,175
Baix Penedès 1,653 166 121 363 378 7 2,688
Barcelonès 79,558 12,048 5,820 11,587 22,915 283 132,211
Berguedà 2,675 364 178 193 588 1 3,999
Cerdanya 192 27 14 81 46 0 360
Conca de Barberà 471 54 22 131 117 3 798
Garraf 2,722 377 174 473 640 7 4,393
Garrigues 644 89 50 106 141 2 1,032
Garrotxa 845 114 54 389 185 3 1,590
Gironès 3,691 381 249 1,167 977 12 6,477
Maresme 7,306 943 579 1,660 2,072 38 12,598
Montsià 1,678 133 105 363 374 6 2,659
Noguera 1,196 127 104 267 243 3 1,940
Osona 2,791 444 210 726 922 6 5,099
Pallars Jussà 389 62 32 68 107 2 660
Pallars Sobirà 165 14 15 29 20 2 245
Pla d'Urgell 1,060 107 70 207 218 5 1,667
Pla de l'Estany 473 44 19 225 120 3 884
Priorat 227 21 14 79 55 3 399
Ribera d'Ebre 558 53 34 127 108 3 883
Ripollès 557 66 57 204 144 3 1,031
Segarra 494 59 28 100 127 0 808
Segrià 7,711 855 614 1,468 1,889 25 12,562
Selva 2,824 275 169 811 538 18 4,635
Solsonès 282 37 32 87 79 0 517
Tarragonès 5,712 747 387 1,425 1,437 34 9,742
Terra Alta 266 30 11 61 62 1 431
Urgell 868 115 67 197 212 2 1,461
Val d'Aran 139 13 9 51 26 0 238
Vallès Occidental 19,669 2,595 1,738 4,455 5,481 122 34,060
Vallès Oriental 7,759 985 606 1,652 1,979 19 13,000
Catalonia 199,491 26,629 14,423 38,235 54,042 760 333,580
Metropolità 141,766 19,785 10,471 23,918 39,529 506 235,975
Comarques Gironines 12,621 1,310 816 4,292 2,864 66 21,969
Camp de Tarragona 13,128 1,591 895 3,960 3,455 87 23,116
Terres de l'Ebre 4,595 452 261 993 1,055 21 7,377
Ponent 11,973 1,352 933 2,345 2,830 37 19,470
Comarques Centrals 13,900 1,976 941 2,389 3,956 35 23,197
Alt Pirineu i Aran 1,508 163 106 338 353 8 2,476
Barcelona 155,392 21,723 11,378 26,215 43,401 541 258,650
Girona 12,754 1,330 829 4,362 2,903 66 22,244
Lleida 13,626 1,533 1,060 2,705 3,228 45 22,197
Tarragona 17,723 2,043 1,156 4,953 4,510 108 30,493
Source: Departament de Benestar i Família. Secretaria General.

Last update: June 18, 2009.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Physical disability
It is divided into two types: Motor: Physical disability suffering people who have affected the ability to move for various reasons (birth defects, accidents, brain injury...). Non-motor: Physical disability with people who for organic causes cannot develop a full life (fatigue, coronary heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease...).
Intellectual disability
Disability presented by persons who, for both congenital and acquired causes, have mental deficiencies. This group is characterized by intellectual function below average and ease of understanding and information reduced. This category does not include people with mental illness.
Recognised disability
Certificate granted to those people with a disability that is equal to or higher than 33% of the threshold established by law. It indicates the diagnosis and degree of handicap expressed in percentage terms and issued by the evaluation and orientation teams (EVO) at care centres for disabled people (CAD) run by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Sensory disability
There are two types: Visual: Disability experienced by people who have a total or partial lack of vision prevents them from living a full life (total or partial blindness). Hearing: Disability experienced by people who have a total or partial lack of hearing prevents them from living a full life and, that as a result of this deficiency, also may lack speech. These situations may have originated from genetic lesions, delivery or in diseases of the mother during pregnancy (total or partial deafness, deaf-muteness...).
Mental illness
Disability experienced by people affected by cognitive, affective and behavioral disorders.

Methodological aspects

The Catalan social services system is the coordinated set of personal services, facilities, activities, economic benefits and of prevention, care and social promotion in Catalonia, which aims to ensure the participation of all citizens in the benefits of social life. Is specifically designed for individuals, families or groups who, by having difficulties in the development and integration into society, lack of personal autonomy, physical, mental or sensory disabilities, family problems or suffer social marginalization, are creditors of collective and caring effort.

The system is divided functionally into primary care social services and social services of specialized care, and is organized territorially in key areas of social services, sectors of county, regional and territorial areas of Catalonia, and in the following areas of action: care for family, childhood and adolescence; care for people with disabilities, old age care and treatment of drug addicts.

The statistics on the disabled population of Catalonia is the result of the operation of a database that feeds information recorded in the assessment and guidance services dependent of the Catalan Institute of Assistance and Social Services (ICASS).

The valuation of disability meets the regulation set by the Royal Decree 1971/1999 of December 23, on the procedure for recognition, declaration and classification of the degree of disability (BOE number 22 of January 26, 2000 ).

The aim of this provision is regulate the recognition of the degree of disability, establish new applicable scales, determine the competent bodies to make the aforementioned recognition and procedure to be followed, all with the purpose of the valuation and classification of the degree of disability affecting the person is uniform throughout the State, and ensure equal conditions for access of citizens to the benefits, economic rights and services given by public bodies.

The WHO international classification defines disability as any restriction or lack of ability of a human to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal. Therefore, the severity of limitations for activities is the fundamental criterion used to develop the scales.

The official typological classification of disabilities is as follows: physical, sensory and mental. The typology exploited statistically encompasses the following groups: motor and non-motor physical, visual, auditory, mental and mentally ill. The tables include the 'no record', which are collected those encodings that cannot be included in any of these main groups.

Regarding the degree of disability ,is divided into three main groups. The first groups degrees of disability between 33% and 64%, which includes people with disabilities with a level of personal autonomy sufficiently important to social and labor insertion at least in a protected work system. The second group comprises degrees of disability between 65% and 74%. This block includes people who, generally speaking, have more difficulties to achieve full employment and social integration. The third group, with degrees of disability equal to or greater than 75%, recorded in most affected people who are likely to require highly specialized tools for social integration.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.