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 2021
Physical Visual Hearing Intellectuals disability Mentally ill Multiple disability (physical and intellectual) Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,945 205 158 581 654 15 73 3,631
Alt Empordà 5,212 390 356 1,432 1,202 13 251 8,856
Alt Penedès 4,025 443 417 1,037 1,372 29 449 7,772
Alt Urgell 637 61 64 121 245 10 157 1,295
Alta Ribagorça 122 10 10 20 36 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 12 214
Anoia 4,737 502 480 1,086 1,962 101 571 9,439
Aran 224 29 20 49 63 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 30 418
Bages 8,385 877 933 1,669 2,961 112 1,187 16,124
Baix Camp 7,213 935 987 3,279 3,977 34 407 16,832
Baix Ebre 3,716 401 286 1,172 2,695 22 105 8,397
Baix Empordà 5,742 347 404 1,601 1,268 18 199 9,579
Baix Llobregat 39,153 3,789 3,871 6,865 13,232 579 3,077 70,566
Baix Penedès 5,281 422 448 1,156 1,836 44 148 9,335
Barcelonès 124,476 12,399 12,126 18,353 41,476 1,862 6,038 216,730
Berguedà 2,578 327 316 297 931 12 468 4,929
Cerdanya 437 46 36 130 94 0 19 762
Conca de Barberà 698 91 65 188 276 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 50 1,372
Garraf 5,340 632 469 1,071 1,688 36 178 9,414
Garrigues 706 71 67 178 220 17 96 1,355
Garrotxa 2,055 192 148 668 604 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 152 3,822
Gironès 8,896 694 700 2,521 2,536 20 333 15,700
Lluçanès .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Maresme 13,639 1,578 1,794 3,766 4,845 820 1,295 27,737
Moianès 419 51 51 95 141 30 58 845
Montsià 2,890 280 261 813 1,874 6 134 6,258
Noguera 1,361 130 167 373 474 30 218 2,753
Osona 5,116 637 599 1,310 1,960 143 539 10,304
Pallars Jussà 497 63 61 98 205 18 74 1,016
Pallars Sobirà 191 21 22 32 68 6 40 380
Pla d'Urgell 1,362 125 121 378 403 26 198 2,613
Pla de l'Estany 1,202 94 99 383 380 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 67 2,232
Priorat 315 42 38 99 135 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 17 649
Ribera d'Ebre 742 94 80 236 430 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 54 1,638
Ripollès 1,020 100 117 281 361 0 79 1,961
Segarra 779 77 59 203 264 16 175 1,573
Segrià 9,745 1,024 1,014 2,414 3,408 321 1,200 19,126
Selva 7,337 591 657 1,795 2,048 30 369 12,827
Solsonès 470 49 58 161 168 12 111 1,029
Tarragonès 11,777 1,221 1,097 3,469 4,337 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 432 22,399
Terra Alta 379 51 28 135 220 0 27 841
Urgell 1,194 136 117 338 439 32 214 2,470
Vallès Occidental 33,359 3,525 4,132 9,805 15,004 1,226 4,012 71,063
Vallès Oriental 14,985 1,445 1,742 3,435 4,852 756 1,327 28,542
Catalonia 340,357 34,197 34,675 73,093 121,344 6,492 24,640 634,798
Metropolità 225,716 22,746 23,676 42,245 79,447 5,253 15,757 414,840
Comarques Gironines 31,464 2,408 2,481 8,681 8,399 94 1,450 54,977
Camp de Tarragona 21,948 2,494 2,345 7,616 9,379 122 979 44,883
Terres de l'Ebre 7,727 826 655 2,356 5,219 31 320 17,134
Ponent 15,147 1,563 1,545 3,884 5,208 442 2,101 29,890
Comarques Centrals 17,041 1,947 1,962 3,549 6,204 304 2,370 33,377
Alt Pirineu i Aran 2,108 230 213 450 711 41 332 4,085
Penedès 19,206 1,983 1,798 4,312 6,777 205 1,331 35,612
Barcelona 256,234 26,205 26,939 48,796 90,434 5,707 19,201 473,516
Girona 31,805 2,449 2,504 8,784 8,472 93 1,461 55,568
Lleida 17,362 1,801 1,784 4,385 6,004 495 2,531 34,362
Tarragona 34,956 3,742 3,448 11,128 16,434 197 1,447 71,352
Source: Departament de Drets Socials.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: May 12, 2022.

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.