Inequalities in mortality rates by disability
About 2 mins
Key points
- Mortality rates for disabled people are more than twice as high as for people without a disability.
- Among disabled people, the more their day-to-day activities are limited, the higher their mortality rates tend to be.
Disabled people have higher mortality rates than non-disabled people
Disability in this analysis is defined based on someone’s assessment of whether their daily activities are limited by having a long-term physical or mental health condition, as under the Equality Act 2010. This assessment can be affected by a variety of environmental and societal factors, such as stigma and discrimination, exclusion from education and employment opportunities, and barriers within the health system. These can limit people’s full and effective participation in society as well as affect their health.
This chart shows age-standardised mortality rates by self-reported disability status.
- Disabled people’s mortality rates are more than twice as high as rates for people without a disability.
- The mortality rate for disabled men whose activities are limited a little is 1.7 times higher than that of non-disabled people. It is 2.7 times higher for disabled men whose activities are limited a lot than that of non-disabled people.
- Similarly, for women, the mortality rate is 1.7 times higher for disabled women whose activity is limited a little than for non-disabled women, and 2.9 times higher for women whose activity is limited a lot than for non-disabled women.
As the period covered in this analysis includes the COVID-19 pandemic, higher mortality for disabled people will also reflect that the risk of death involving COVID-19 was 1.3 to 1.4 times higher for disabled men compared to non-disabled men and 1.3 to 1.6 higher for disabled women compared to non-disabled women.
- A person is classified as being disabled if they assess their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses.
- Figures are for people between 30 to 100 years of age who are usually resident in England, based on the 2011 Census.
- Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) adjust mortality rates, which represent the number of deaths in a population over a given period, to account for differences in age distribution.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Updated estimates of coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by disability status, England
