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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 2005
Physical Visual Hearing Psychological Mentally ill Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,103 112 59 253 284 6 1,817
Alt Empordà 2,279 244 134 774 491 16 3,938
Alt Penedès 2,288 298 165 492 635 12 3,890
Alt Urgell 522 41 27 97 134 4 825
Alta Ribagorça 116 10 10 17 31 0 184
Anoia 3,089 375 188 601 816 18 5,087
Bages 5,666 801 373 839 1,805 16 9,500
Baix Camp 4,314 539 333 1,756 1,359 37 8,338
Baix Ebre 2,211 242 127 449 589 9 3,627
Baix Empordà 2,272 222 168 766 515 17 3,960
Baix Llobregat 24,498 2,737 1,605 3,714 6,594 51 39,199
Baix Penedès 1,809 185 140 388 441 9 2,972
Barcelonès 84,368 12,611 6,316 11,758 24,891 340 140,284
Berguedà 2,875 388 196 193 653 3 4,308
Cerdanya 201 29 17 81 52 0 380
Conca de Barberà 497 58 22 135 142 4 858
Garraf 2,930 399 187 496 724 9 4,745
Garrigues 659 92 51 111 149 2 1,064
Garrotxa 907 120 60 414 216 2 1,719
Gironès 3,952 402 273 1,236 1,095 15 6,973
Maresme 7,843 970 628 1,692 2,244 43 13,420
Montsià 1,733 138 110 366 431 12 2,790
Noguera 1,239 133 107 271 271 7 2,028
Osona 3,049 469 228 752 1,042 6 5,546
Pallars Jussà 404 66 33 78 123 3 707
Pallars Sobirà 167 16 15 28 24 2 252
Pla d'Urgell 1,113 112 73 211 246 7 1,762
Pla de l'Estany 508 49 24 227 133 3 944
Priorat 237 21 15 77 54 2 406
Ribera d'Ebre 583 57 37 131 126 3 937
Ripollès 587 70 60 203 155 7 1,082
Segarra 518 63 32 103 151 0 867
Segrià 7,942 913 652 1,496 2,050 33 13,086
Selva 3,043 299 193 854 635 19 5,043
Solsonès 307 42 33 89 102 1 574
Tarragonès 6,099 801 420 1,465 1,593 39 10,417
Terra Alta 287 32 13 62 67 1 462
Urgell 917 122 70 204 238 5 1,556
Val d'Aran 146 15 11 50 29 0 251
Vallès Occidental 21,016 2,751 1,954 4,539 6,093 176 36,529
Vallès Oriental 8,479 1,034 679 1,696 2,278 37 14,203
Catalonia 212,773 28,078 15,838 39,164 59,701 976 356,530
Metropolità 151,422 20,800 11,534 24,387 43,459 668 252,270
Comarques Gironines 13,548 1,406 912 4,474 3,240 79 23,659
Camp de Tarragona 14,059 1,716 989 4,074 3,873 97 24,808
Terres de l'Ebre 4,814 469 287 1,008 1,213 25 7,816
Ponent 12,388 1,435 985 2,396 3,105 54 20,363
Comarques Centrals 14,986 2,075 1,018 2,474 4,418 44 25,015
Alt Pirineu i Aran 1,556 177 113 351 393 9 2,599
Barcelona 166,104 22,831 12,517 26,769 47,771 711 276,703
Girona 13,689 1,429 927 4,542 3,283 79 23,949
Lleida 14,107 1,633 1,118 2,771 3,561 64 23,254
Tarragona 18,873 2,185 1,276 5,082 5,086 122 32,624
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.