For this release, an audio version and the video "International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 2025: Highlighting the experiences of persons with disabilities, American Sign Language" will be available soon on Statistics Canada's website.
In recognition of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and to help inform the progress of the Accessible Canada Act, Statistics Canada is releasing a series of products that highlight the diverse experiences of persons with disabilities in Canada. These products include infographics focusing on the experiences of racialized persons with disabilities and persons with dynamic disabilities (that is, those who experience changes in their limitations) and an interactive dashboard presenting employment data from the Canadian Survey on Disability. Today's release also includes a report, titled "Changes in the population and employment rates of persons with disabilities, 2017 to 2022," which examines trends in employment among persons with disabilities aged 25 to 64 years, by age at the onset of activity limitations as well as other characteristics.
Racialized persons with disabilities are less likely to live alone and more likely than their non-racialized counterparts to receive help with daily activities from their children
Previous research has highlighted the impact of being part of a racialized group on a variety of outcomes, including income, labour force status, perceived health status and experiences of discrimination. Examining the intersection of disability and racialized groups is important, as racialized persons with disabilities may face a complex set of challenges.
In 2022, 16.5% of Canadians with disabilities aged 15 years and older were part of a racialized group. When further disaggregated by racialized groups, the largest share of racialized persons with disabilities were South Asian (4.2%), followed by Chinese (2.9%) and Black (2.7%). Some disability types showed similar rates among racialized and non-racialized persons, particularly physical, pain-related and cognitive disabilities. In contrast, differences emerged for sensory and mental health-related disability types. Compared with their non-racialized counterparts, racialized persons with disabilities were more likely to have sensory disabilities (47.0% versus 39.3% for their non-racialized counterparts) and less likely to have mental health-related disabilities (32.4% versus 39.2%).
Racialized people were more likely than the non-racialized population to live within households made up of family, extended relatives and non-relatives, or in a household composed of adult children and their parents. Often these living arrangements can be due to cultural preferences, the need for shared resources or caregiving requirements. Similar to these findings on multigenerational and intergenerational households, the household living arrangements of racialized and non-racialized persons with disabilities differed. Racialized persons with disabilities were less likely to live alone (12.7%) than non-racialized persons with disabilities (22.0%). Living in households with children was also more common among racialized persons with disabilities, as they were more likely to be part of a couple with children, to be a lone parent, or be a child living with a parent or guardian.
Living arrangements and available support networks can play an important role for persons with disabilities given their potential caregiving and support needs, particularly among older persons with disabilities. Among those aged 65 years and older, racialized persons with disabilities (63.2%) were more likely than their non-racialized counterparts (56.4%) to receive help with daily activities, such as getting to appointments, doing everyday housework or managing personal care. The source of this help varied between the two groups as racialized persons with disabilities (71.1%) were more likely to report that their children provided this support, compared with non-racialized persons with disabilities (33.1%).
Almost two-thirds of persons with disabilities experience progressive, recurrent, or fluctuating disabilities, also known as dynamic disabilities
Disability is often viewed as a permanent and somewhat stable state, when, in reality, many people experience fluctuations in their limitations as well as changes in the way their limitations impact their ability to do their daily activities. In 2022, 64.2% of persons with disabilities experienced these types of dynamic disabilities, while 35.2% had continuous disabilities.
A previous study outlined different types of dynamic disability: progressive, recurrent or fluctuating. Those who indicated that their ability to do their daily activities was getting worse over time were included in the "progressive limitations" group, and this type of limitation was experienced by 19.5% of persons with disabilities in 2022. The "recurrent limitations" group included those who experienced periods of one month or more without limitations and whose ability to do their daily activities was either getting better, staying the same or fluctuating. Nearly one-third (29.0%) of persons with disabilities fell into this group. Those with "fluctuating limitations" were defined as having no periods of one month or more without limitations, as well as having periods of ability to do more activities and periods of ability to do fewer activities—this limitation was experienced by 15.7% of persons with disabilities.
There are variations in the experiences of those with disabilities during both their periods with and without limitation. While 25.5% of persons with dynamic disabilities did not experience any periods without limitations, the others experienced periods without limitation that varied in length. Around half (50.5%) of those with dynamic disabilities usually had periods of one month or more without limitation, and others experienced shorter periods without limitation, with 5.2% experiencing weeks without limitation, 9.8% having days without limitation and 8.7% having hours without limitation.
During periods of limitation, the variation of the degree of limitation differed between persons with dynamic disabilities and their counterparts with continuous disabilities. Among those with dynamic disabilities, most indicated that the intensity of their limitation varied a great deal (17.0%) or had some variation (51.8%). Meanwhile, among those with continuous disabilities, 9.9% experienced a great deal of variation and 42.4% had some variation.
While, overall, the employment rate for the population of persons with disabilities rose from 2017 to 2022, this was not the case for those with an early onset of limitations
From 2017 to 2022, the employment rate among persons with disabilities aged 25 to 64 years in Canada increased from 55.5% in 2017 to 61.5% in 2022. In contrast, the employment rate for persons without disabilities decreased over a similar period. The population with disabilities changed in many ways from 2017 to 2022 as the rate of disability increased from 22% to 27%, with a particularly notable increase seen for youth with disabilities. Aspects of the work environment or employment process can also play a role. Among persons with disabilities, there was a decrease from 2017 to 2022 in the proportion of persons who were refused a job (from 11.7% to 9.7%) or job interview (from 8.0% to 6.7%) in the previous 12 months because of their condition. Fewer persons with disabilities required workplace accommodations in 2022 (39.3%) compared with five years earlier (42.1%), and a smaller proportion of persons who required accommodations had unmet needs for those required accommodations (54.4% in 2022 compared with 62.2% in 2017).
By examining changes in the workplace and characteristics such as disability severity or timing of disability onset, it is possible to identify some of the elements underlying the increase in employment rate for persons with disabilities. Results show that not all subgroups of the disability population experienced this increase in employment rate.
A closer look at different disability characteristics revealed additional patterns in the change in the employment rate. While the distribution of the number of co-occurring disability types did not change from 2017 to 2022, the employment rate rose significantly among persons with two to three disability types (from 59.6% to 66.8%) and four or more (from 33.0% to 40.5%) disability types during the same period. There was no significant change observed in the employment rate among those with one disability type.
The proportion of persons with disabilities falling into each of the severity groups in 2022 mirrored the results in 2017. Over the same period, the employment rate increased significantly among persons with moderate (from 64.5% to 69.3%) or severe (from 43.9% to 54.7%) disabilities, but did not significantly change among those with mild or very severe disabilities.
From 2017 to 2022, the employment rate did not change significantly among persons with disabilities who experienced the onset of activity limitations exclusively before age 15, classified as "early onset" in this analysis. In contrast, the employment rate increased significantly among persons who experienced the onset of some of their activity limitations before the age of 15, who were classified as having "mixed onset" (from 48.0% to 59.2%) and among those who experienced the onset of activity limitations at age 15 years or older, who were classified as having "later onset" (from 54.9% to 60.0%).
Disability onset can be an important consideration when examining changes in the employment rate as persons with disabilities who experience early onset of disability may be impacted for the entirety of their working-age years while those with later onset may begin to experience limitations while already in the workforce.
Note to readers
The Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) is the official source of data on persons with disabilities aged 15 years and older in Canada. The survey population for the CSD is comprised of Canadians aged 15 years and older as of the date of the preceding Census of Population who are living in private dwellings. For methodological details see Surveys and statistical programs – Canadian Survey on Disability.
The CSD identifies persons with disabilities using the Disability Screening Questions (DSQ). The DSQ measures the degree to which difficulties are experienced across 10 domains of functioning and includes a catch-all question about other health problems or conditions not already captured in the 10 previous disability types, which is associated with an 11th "unknown" disability type. The DSQ collect data about the age of onset of activity limitations in various domains corresponding to the 10 disability types.
Racialized groups are based on the population group question in the census and the derived visible minority variable. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." For more information, see the page Visible minority of persons.
Sensory disabilities include seeing or hearing disabilities. Physical disabilities include mobility, dexterity or flexibility disabilities. Cognitive disabilities include learning, developmental or memory disabilities.
Information regarding labour force status for persons with disabilities comes from data collected for the CSD and therefore reflects the time of survey collection in 2017 and 2022.
Age of onset refers to the self-reported age, measured in years, at which a person first began to have activity limitations associated with a specific disability type.
For the purposes of this analysis, persons with early onset of activity limitations are those whose limitations associated with all their disability types began before the age of 15, while persons with later onset of activity limitations are those whose limitations associated with all their disability types began at age 15 or older. Persons with mixed onset of activity limitations are defined as those whose limitations associated with at least one of their disability types began before the age of 15, and whose limitations associated with at least one other of their disability types began at age 15 or older. Persons who did not provide the age of onset of their activity limitations are included in totals but not in analysis disaggregated by age of onset.
A global severity score was developed for the CSD, which was calculated for each person using: a) the number of disability types, b) the level of difficulty experienced in performing certain tasks and c) the frequency of activity limitations. To simplify the concept of severity, four severity classes were established: mild, moderate, severe and very severe. Note that the name assigned to each class is intended to facilitate use of a severity score and is not a label or judgment concerning the person's level of disability. For more information, see the Canadian Survey on Disability, 2022: Concepts and Methods Guide.
All differences mentioned in this release are statistically significant (p < 0.05).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).