Census 2000 counted 49.7 million people with some type of long lasting condition or disability.¹ They represented 19.3 percent of the 257.2 million people who were aged 5 and older in the civilian noninstitutionalized population — or nearly one person in five (see Table 1).² Within this population, Census 2000 found:

• 9.3 million (3.6 percent) with a sensory disability involving sight or hearing.
• 21.2 million (8.2 percent) with a condition limiting basic physical activities, such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying.
• 12.4 million (4.8 percent) with a physical, mental, or emotional condition causing difficulty in learning, remembering, or concentrating.
• 6.8 million (2.6 percent) with a physical, mental, or emotional condition causing difficulty in dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home.
• 18.2 million of those aged 16 and older with a condition that made it difficult to go outside the home to shop or visit a doctor (8.6 percent of the 212.0 million people this age).
• 21.3 million of those aged 16 to 64 with a condition that affected their ability to work at a job or business (11.9 percent of the 178.7 million people this age).

This report is part of a series that presents population and housing data collected by Census 2000. It presents data on the disability status of people aged 5 and older in the civilian noninstitutionalized population, and describes the geographic distribution of people with disabilities for the United States,³ including regions, states, counties, and places with populations of 100,000 or more.

Information on disability was first collected in the 1830 census and the questions have evolved over the decades. Census 2000 asked two questions (see Figure 1) about long-lasting conditions among the population aged 5 and older. The first question, with two subparts, focused on long-lasting impairments involving vision or hearing (sensory disability) and certain physical limitations, such as difficulty walking or climbing stairs (physical disability). The second question, with four subparts, concentrated on difficulty performing certain activities due to a physical, mental, or emotional condition. People aged 5 and older were asked if they experienced difficulty with cognitive tasks such as learning, remembering, and concentrating (mental disability). They were also asked about difficulty in taking care of personal needs like dressing and bathing (self-care disability). People aged 16 and older were asked if they experienced difficulty going outside the home to shop or visit the doctor. Additionally, people in this group were asked if a physical, mental, or emotional condition caused them difficulty working at a job or business (employment disability).

This report uses a disability status indicator to present estimates of the number and percentage of people with disabilities. People were defined as having a disability if one or more of the following conditions were true:

• They were aged 5 or older and responded “yes” to a sensory, physical, mental, or self-care disability.
• They were aged 16 years or older and responded “yes” to a disability affecting going outside the home.
• They were between the ages of 16 and 64 and responded “yes” to an employment disability.

When referring to people with disabilities, this report does not distinguish between people who responded positively to only one of the subparts and those who responded positively to more than one. As a result, the terms “with a disability,” “with any disability,” and “with one or more disabilities” are used interchangeably throughout the report.

Census 2000 asked for disability information from all people aged 5 and older, except those responding to special military or shipboard questionnaires. This report considers only the civilian noninstitutionalized population.

As a result of extensive discussions with the disability and policy research communities, the Census 2000 questions on disability were substantially different from the 1990 questions on this topic. While Census 2000 gathered data from the population aged 5 and older, data collected in 1990 came only from the population aged 15 and older. The 1990 questions focused on conditions limiting work, going outside the home, and self-care, but did not specify sensory impairments or conditions restricting walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying. Because of the major differences between the disability questions in 1990 and 2000, comparisons between the two censuses are not recommended.

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¹ The estimates in this report are based on responses from a sample of the population. As with all surveys, estimates may vary from the actual values because of sampling variation or other factors. All statements made in this report have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90-percent confidence level, unless otherwise noted.

² In this report, the population universe for people with disabilities excludes people in the military and people who are in institutions.

³ The text of this report discusses data for the United States, including the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are shown in Table 3 and Figure 5.