More than one in four American adults has some form of disability, the highest number since tracking began nearly a decade ago.
The number of Americans with a self-reported disability reached 71 million in 2022, according to CDC data, which asked about cognitive, visual and mobility-related disabilities.
This number represents an increase from 61 million in 2016, the first year the CDC began collecting data on this demographic.
There are multiple reasons behind this increase, including an aging population and a rise in chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity — and now, the CDC has suggested it could also be linked to long Covid, which was included in the survey for the first time.
The map above was based on data submitted to the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which collected accounts of long-term Covid symptoms contributing to high disability rates.
In the first year the data was recorded, 61 million Americans reported having some type of disability.
CDC tracks types of disabilities including hearing, vision, cognition, mobility, self-care, and independent living.
In collecting data, she asked whether people had various hearing and vision impairments, whether they were able to move and perform tasks on their own, whether they had difficulty concentrating, and more.
The CDC reports were provided voluntarily by members of the public, meaning the agency could not confirm the medical accuracy of the reports.
According to data collected in 2022, the most recent year available, seven percent of Americans reported having long Covid — about 18 million adults. Long Covid is characterized by a long list of persistent symptoms after a Covid infection, including breathing problems, chronic fatigue, brain fog and headaches.
Research into long Covid is ongoing, although there has been some skepticism about whether it is a distinct condition or simply a set of symptoms and how prevalent the disorder really is.
According to CDC data, Arkansas had the highest number of residents with a disability, with 38 percent of people reporting some type of disability. West Virginia followed with 37 percent, and Louisiana and Mississippi with 36 percent.
Washington, D.C., and Hawaii had the lowest disability rates, with 21 percent and 22 percent, respectively, reporting a disability. Following those states were New Jersey at 23 percent and Illinois at 24 percent.
An earlier CDC report said the highest rates of disability are in rural counties, where an estimated one-third of residents have a disability.
Disability rates were higher in states with more rural and remote regions than urban ones, which could be due to lower access to care, including preventive care, occupational hazards in industries such as mining and agriculture, and the fact that rural regions tend to have an older overall population.
The latest figures were determined based on entries from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which allows respondents to self-report up to six functional types of disability.
For the first time in its summary, the CDC included a question about disabling symptoms related to long Covid, though it stopped short of calling long Covid a disability in and of itself.
‘We collected data on experiences with long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer that the person did not have before COVID, to help us better understand the relationship between disabilities and long COVID.’
Disability rates were lower than those in 2022 than in 2019, a year before the Covid pandemic left millions of people with long-term Covid symptoms.
However, the report does not explicitly say that the disabilities reported in the BRFSS were directly related to long Covid, although the data helps to better understand the relationships between disabilities and long Covid.
Specifically, participants were classified as having one of six types of disability if they answered “yes” to questions about whether they were deaf or blind even when wearing glasses, had difficulty concentrating or making decisions, had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, were unable to bathe or dress independently, or had trouble running errands alone.
Long Covid symptoms were more common among people with disabilities than among those without: around 11 and 7 percent, respectively.
The agency said: “CDC continues to collaborate with clinicians, public health partners, and other federal agencies to better understand the impacts of long COVID, more broadly, and, given the data, to better identify and support the needs of people with disabilities.”
Older adults reported the highest rate of disability compared to other age groups, with 44 percent of people over age 65.
And when examining disability status by race/ethnicity, the highest prevalence groups, both about 39 percent, identified as American Indian or Alaska Native and other/multiracial.
The CDC has previously said that among working-age adults with only one disability, the most common type was mobility disability (34 percent), followed by hearing (24 percent) and cognition (about 23 percent).
The CDC said: “These findings underscore the fact that people with disabilities make up a large portion of every community and population. Many of us know or are someone with a disability, and disability inclusion is beneficial to everyone.
‘It’s important to remember that disability is not a health outcome; it’s part of how people experience life, such as hearing, seeing, moving, processing information and caring for themselves.’