Skip to main content

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 2017
Physical Visual Hearing Intellectuals Mentally ill Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,733 193 139 453 609 32 3,159
Alt Empordà 4,129 345 303 1,080 997 140 6,994
Alt Penedès 3,740 422 385 799 1,304 335 6,985
Alt Urgell 598 59 62 109 216 111 1,155
Alta Ribagorça 103 12 9 20 34 7 185
Anoia 4,505 511 431 918 1,852 384 8,601
Aran 177 25 16 49 49 23 339
Bages 7,816 844 832 1,404 2,990 791 14,677
Baix Camp 6,144 836 826 2,767 3,336 239 14,148
Baix Ebre 3,123 362 234 783 2,147 22 6,671
Baix Empordà 4,543 323 348 1,173 1,141 85 7,613
Baix Llobregat 34,453 3,603 3,507 5,408 12,289 1,998 61,258
Baix Penedès 4,277 357 389 753 1,478 55 7,309
Barcelonès 112,915 12,689 11,161 14,922 39,123 3,222 194,032
Berguedà 2,738 358 296 257 961 342 4,952
Cerdanya 378 45 30 109 77 7 646
Conca de Barberà 643 84 55 178 248 33 1,241
Garraf 4,753 580 426 857 1,574 107 8,297
Garrigues 682 75 69 156 202 63 1,247
Garrotxa 1,812 187 136 525 494 78 3,232
Gironès 6,964 657 579 1,952 2,245 160 12,557
Maresme 12,925 1,478 1,578 2,846 4,460 798 24,085
Moianès 399 51 38 69 145 38 740
Montsià 2,583 250 227 620 1,452 76 5,208
Noguera 1,223 122 165 324 434 153 2,421
Osona 4,897 666 521 1,133 1,861 331 9,409
Pallars Jussà 467 68 59 84 182 40 900
Pallars Sobirà 181 23 19 33 59 24 339
Pla d'Urgell 1,184 126 123 328 367 137 2,265
Pla de l'Estany 1,034 87 86 300 324 22 1,853
Priorat 264 35 31 88 108 14 540
Ribera d'Ebre 633 80 70 178 337 19 1,317
Ripollès 931 102 109 245 302 70 1,759
Segarra 624 80 51 172 213 136 1,276
Segrià 8,628 981 964 2,049 3,115 901 16,638
Selva 6,414 545 558 1,307 1,654 193 10,671
Solsonès 426 39 57 145 162 80 909
Tarragonès 10,131 1,142 981 2,510 3,928 249 18,941
Terra Alta 318 48 25 92 166 10 659
Urgell 1,075 146 112 295 406 146 2,180
Vallès Occidental 28,152 3,416 3,763 7,449 12,647 2,558 57,985
Vallès Oriental 14,972 1,380 1,550 2,708 4,644 792 26,046
Catalonia 303,687 33,432 31,320 57,647 110,332 15,021 551,439
Metropolità 203,518 22,574 21,566 33,351 73,197 9,374 363,580
Comarques Gironines 25,827 2,246 2,119 6,582 7,157 748 44,679
Camp de Tarragona 18,915 2,290 2,032 5,996 8,229 567 38,029
Terres de l'Ebre 6,657 740 556 1,673 4,102 127 13,855
Ponent 13,416 1,530 1,484 3,324 4,737 1,536 26,027
Comarques Centrals 16,356 1,969 1,748 3,017 6,153 1,585 30,828
Alt Pirineu i Aran 1,904 232 195 404 617 212 3,564
Penedès 17,094 1,851 1,620 3,300 6,140 872 30,877
Barcelona 232,287 25,997 24,499 38,777 83,859 11,697 417,116
Girona 26,122 2,287 2,135 6,664 7,212 751 45,171
Lleida 15,429 1,761 1,709 3,784 5,452 1,824 29,959
Tarragona 29,849 3,387 2,977 8,422 13,809 749 59,193
Source: Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Families.

Last update: February 14, 2018.

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.