An estimated one in five Canadians (or 6.2 million) aged 15 years and over had one or more disabilities that limited them in their daily activities.
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The figure appears among findings from the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD). It finds among other points that persons with disabilities had lower personal incomes compared to those without disabilities and it varied depending on sex, severity of disability and household living arrangements.
Women aged 25 to 64 years with milder disabilities had median after-tax personal income that was 24 per cent less than their male counterparts and 13 per cent less than women without disabilities.
Among working age adults, personal income was strongly related to the severity of disability. Those without disabilities had a higher median after-tax personal income ($39,000) than those with milder disabilities ($34,300) and those with more severe disabilities ($19,200).
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Among working age adults, 28 per cent of those with more severe disabilities were living below Canada’s official poverty line (based on the Market Basket Measure), compared with 14 per cent of those with milder disabilities and 10 per cent of those without disabilities.
The highest rates of poverty (for those aged 15 to 64 years) were among those with more severe disabilities who were living alone or were lone parents. For those living alone, 6 in 10 were below the poverty line, as were 4 in 10 of lone parents. Regardless of disability, 8 in 10 lone parents were women.