Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has just launched a new thematic page on disability and a Disability Database, an easy-to-find webpage with all comparable EU data on persons with disabilities. The disability database is a gateway to EU-level statistics on persons with disabilities, showing comparisons between the different Member States. This is a welcome initiative as until now the data could be difficult to locate and use.
The database is host to an array of interesting information, including an insight into which Member States report the highest proportion of persons with disabilities and long-term health issues– which is shown to be Finland (20.7% of the population) and France (19.5% of the population). In other areas, Bulgaria was shown to be the country where persons with disabilities faced the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion (49.9%), and Malta was pointed out as the Member State where the lowest percentage of social protection expenditure went towards disability allowance (only 0.6%).
The database covers data in areas such as:
- disability prevalence
- income and living conditions
- social protection
- access to the labour market
- access to education and training
- access to health and care services
- access to information and communication technologies
- leisure and social participation
- health status and determinants
- overall experience of life
This is a significant step. It means that from now on it is going to be much easier for us to find the data we need to track progress in the areas listed above. It will therefore help us hold policy-makers accountable for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.