• Homepage
• Manifesto
• Press
  
  Press Releases
  Facts and figures
  Manifesto
  EU in the lives of disabled citizens
  
• Elections in EU 27
• You are a disabled citizen
• Your are a candidate MEP
• You are an electoral authority
• Contact

Press: Facts and figures

At the dawn of the 21st century, what is the situation of disabled persons in the European Union ?

• People with disabilities are not a small minority: we are more than 50 million EU citizens with a disability, representing more than 15% of the EU population.
• One family in four has a member with a disability.
• We are less likely by more than 50% to reach third level education as non disabled persons.   
• Many disabled children do not have equal opportunities to access education.
• We are more likely to rely on statutory benefit than earnings. Moreover, our income is generally significantly lower than the income of non-disabled persons.   
• We not only face unemployment, twice as high than non-disabled persons according to the labour market statistics, but thousands among us are excluded from the labour market and consequently from unemployment statistics.
• We live in an inaccessible environment, despite the fact that we represent, together with other persons with temporarily reduced mobility, 40% of the population.
• Amongst disabled persons, one out of two persons has never participated in leisure, cultural or sport activities, and has never had access to theatres, to cinemas, to concerts, to bars and restaurants, to libraries…
• We are confronted with isolation and prejudice.
• There are more than 200.000 persons with disabilities forced to live in closed institutions, without the right to make choices in life and deprived of the most fundamental human rights.
• The free movement of persons in the European Union is just an ideal for us, because most of the time barriers prevent us from leaving our homes.
• In the 1million4disability campaign more than 1.300.000 citizens signed in favour of European comprehensive legislative measures to make disability discrimination history.