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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 and Aran, areas and provinces 2023
Physical Visual Hearing Intellectuals disability Mentally ill Multiple disability (physical and intellectual) Not stated Total
Alt Camp 2,093 206 155 683 699 30 71 3,937
Alt Empordà 5,802 433 364 1,738 1,272 176 294 10,079
Alt Penedès 4,264 470 448 1,148 1,439 53 442 8,264
Alt Urgell 685 64 67 132 267 25 163 1,403
Alta Ribagorça 116 14 9 23 41 5 11 219
Anoia 5,157 535 499 1,251 2,096 185 590 10,313
Aran 249 34 19 51 90 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 31 476
Bages 8,726 859 940 2,026 3,099 153 1,144 16,947
Baix Camp 7,608 970 1,040 3,590 4,223 79 416 17,926
Baix Ebre 4,084 411 305 1,304 2,800 30 134 9,068
Baix Empordà 6,351 387 440 1,990 1,374 207 214 10,963
Baix Llobregat 40,100 3,749 3,871 8,189 13,891 1,021 3,192 74,013
Baix Penedès 5,898 445 466 1,391 2,053 75 167 10,495
Barcelonès 128,819 12,194 12,393 20,720 43,137 3,095 6,696 227,054
Berguedà 2,542 301 297 349 968 16 469 4,942
Cerdanya 478 44 34 151 101 17 23 848
Conca de Barberà 749 96 71 206 314 8 53 1,497
Garraf 5,721 650 483 1,188 1,791 102 228 10,163
Garrigues 706 63 68 187 237 32 102 1,395
Garrotxa 2,172 195 150 753 633 68 177 4,148
Gironès 9,981 731 758 2,924 2,603 299 384 17,680
Lluçanès 244 15 22 46 75 8 26 436
Maresme 14,956 1,624 1,826 4,583 5,297 1,246 1,357 30,889
Moianès 455 60 54 117 156 35 67 944
Montsià 3,134 304 279 929 2,066 12 147 6,871
Noguera 1,438 135 180 417 500 77 224 2,971
Osona 5,330 654 618 1,566 2,107 144 522 10,941
Pallars Jussà 519 64 59 116 231 20 74 1,083
Pallars Sobirà 207 22 21 32 70 7 41 400
Pla d'Urgell 1,437 113 126 402 445 72 231 2,826
Pla de l'Estany 1,313 97 105 443 377 36 64 2,435
Priorat 313 44 38 107 138 5 18 663
Ribera d'Ebre 834 107 86 273 471 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 57 1,831
Ripollès 1,128 103 124 303 357 24 80 2,119
Segarra 834 76 64 224 287 40 177 1,702
Segrià 9,985 1,021 1,003 2,673 3,515 495 1,216 19,908
Selva 7,714 602 667 2,154 2,200 203 389 13,929
Solsonès 481 50 64 172 183 14 109 1,073
Tarragonès 12,702 1,279 1,171 4,098 4,566 158 463 24,437
Terra Alta 408 53 31 149 216 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 30 888
Urgell 1,277 140 125 393 455 70 220 2,680
Vallès Occidental 34,817 3,519 4,166 11,462 15,986 2,016 4,200 76,166
Vallès Oriental 15,435 1,512 1,846 4,101 5,214 1,004 1,406 30,518
Catalonia 357,262 34,445 35,552 84,754 128,040 11,368 26,119 677,540
Metropolità 234,245 22,611 24,116 49,087 83,568 8,391 16,862 438,880
Comarques Gironines 34,461 2,548 2,608 10,305 8,816 1,013 1,602 61,353
Camp de Tarragona 23,465 2,595 2,475 8,684 9,940 280 1,021 48,460
Terres de l'Ebre 8,460 875 701 2,655 5,553 46 368 18,658
Ponent 15,616 1,545 1,562 4,275 5,419 784 2,159 31,360
Comarques Centrals 17,939 1,945 1,999 4,311 6,647 373 2,353 35,567
Alt Pirineu i Aran 2,254 242 209 505 800 76 343 4,429
Penedès 20,822 2,084 1,882 4,932 7,297 405 1,411 38,833
Barcelona 266,592 26,142 27,472 56,755 95,272 9,079 20,345 501,657
Girona 34,834 2,586 2,630 10,427 8,886 1,027 1,613 62,003
Lleida 18,013 1,802 1,808 4,842 6,336 861 2,605 36,267
Tarragona 37,823 3,915 3,642 12,730 17,546 401 1,556 77,613
Source: Departament de Drets Socials.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: June 19, 2024.

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.