About Disability Data

Graphic banner

Overview

The Disability Data Hub is a free, global public good, to access disability-disaggregated data across development indicators and sectors. The hub collates, aggregates, and catalogs multiple data sources with attention to the use of questions on functional difficulties as recommended by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. The hub also includes knowledge and learning resources on collecting and using development data disaggregated by disability.

The Disability Data Hub seeks to increase access to disability data that can be used by policymakers, civil society, development practitioners, and academics to inform policy and program development for persons with disabilities.

The Disability Data Hub was developed by the World Bank's Global Department for Social Development and the Development Economics Data Group.  The development of the hub was supported by grants from Microsoft, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the World Bank’s Human Rights Trust Fund.

The World Bank commissioned Fordham University to support the development of estimates for the Disability Data Hub (DDH), in particular regarding underlying methods and codes. This support was provided by Fordham University in the context of the Disability Data Initiative (DDI) and its Disability Statistics Databases.

Disability Disaggregation and Data Availability

There are several data gaps in the collection and use of data on persons with disabilities. The differing use of disability definitions can make it difficult to harmonize and compare prevalence rates and progress on development indicators across countries. 

To address these challenges, the DDH relies on national-level population-based datasets that include questions from or aligned with the Washington Group Short Set of Questions (WG-SS) module, a tool developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to improve the measurement of disability in surveys and censuses. This module is the most widely used and has been endorsed by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Inter-Agency Expert Group on the SDGs as the best available practice for collecting and analyzing comparable prevalence data on adults with disabilities.

The WG-SS uses individual functioning at the activity level across six domains: vision, hearing, mobility, cognition, self-care, and communication (see details below). These domains collectively serve to capture the majority of persons with disabilities at risk of restricted social participation. Currently, the Disability Data Hub uses data for persons above the age of 15 years. 

As countries may have very different population structures, comparing prevalence rates across countries can be challenging as they may reflect demographic differences across countries combined with other determinants such as poverty, access to healthcare services and assistive devices. To address this, the World Bank applies an age- and sex-adjustment procedure, first calculating disability prevalence rates for standardized sex-age groups in each country and then weighting them using population distributions from United Nations demographic data.

Understanding Prevalence and Functional Difficulty Scales

The Disability Data Hub uses the guidance from the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to measure disability prevalence. For each domain of individual functioning, the Washington Group Short Set on Disability asks for the degree of functional difficulty on a 4-point scale: no difficulty, some difficulty, a lot of difficulty, cannot do at all. 

For overall disability prevalence users are recommended to use the cutoff of at least a lot of difficulty (i.e., selection of either a lot of difficulty OR unable to do). In addition, the Disability Data Hub offers the ability to filter data by no difficulty, some difficulty, and any difficulty.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

The Disability Data Hub is a centralized open platform for disability data and related information. This initiative aims to identify disparities, track progress, support advocacy efforts, and inform planning and resource allocation decisions. By curating and analyzing disability data, the Hub promotes greater inclusion, accessibility, and equality for people with disabilities.

The Hub uses national level population-based data across multiple data sources. It offers user-friendly and multiple ways to access data using different filters, by country or sectors, with the objective to support governments, civil society, development practitioners, academics, and World Bank Group staff in finding and using data to improve policies and programs for persons with disabilities.

At this time, the Disability Data Hub houses data for 63 countries, under 28 main indicators which are further disaggregated by age, sex, type of functional difficulty, severity of functional difficulty, and urbanization. 

The DDH uses questions from or similar to those developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG).

The Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG) defines disability based on a functional approach, rather than a medical or categorical one. The Washington Group Short Set (WG-SS) of questions identifies disability by assessing difficulties in performing basic activities that are essential for daily living. WG-SS questions includes difficulties seeing, hearing, walking or climbing stairs, remembering or concentrating, self-care, and communication (expressive and receptive). Each question explores the degree of difficulty in functioning with four response options: no difficulty, some difficulty, a lot of difficulty, cannot do at all.

The Disability Data Hub offers users the choice to explore data by different degrees of difficulty. As recommended by the WG, "for international comparisons a person is considered to have a disability if they answer "a lot of difficulty" or "cannot do at all" to at least one of the six questions [in the WG-SS]." In the Disability Data Hub, you can use the selection of "at least a lot of difficulty" under the category of "Severity of difficulty" to get this number.

The DDH databank uses population-based datasets, since 2009,  that 1) provide nationally representative data for their adult population; 2) are representative of women, men, urban and rural residents separately; and 3) have for all adults ages 15 and older the WG-SS (Washington Group-Short Set of questions) or similar questions. Similar questions refer to questions that cover at least the four domains recommended in the UN guidelines for censuses  (seeing, hearing, mobility, cognition), have a graded answer scale but may have differences in wording in the questions or answers. 

The key datasets are census datasets and selected nationally representative surveys as follows: Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Household Income and Expenditure surveys (HIES), Enquête Harmonisée sur le Conditions de Vie des Ménages (EHCVM), Living Standard Measurement Studies (LSMS), Labor Force Surveys (LFS) and miscellaneous national surveys.

The Disability Data Hub offers an API for all available data. API access is available on each indicator page. 

Yes, different sources can share the same indicators. The DDH Databank integrates multiple data sources per country to ensure comprehensive coverage, as no single source captures all dimensions equally. While censuses are prioritized for their broad population representation, household surveys complement them when census data are outdated or incomplete.

There are several data gaps in the collection and use of data on persons with disabilities. The differing use of disability definitions can make it difficult to harmonize and compare prevalence rates and progress on development indicators across countries. 

The Disability Data Hub currently includes data, which is publicly available, from low and middle income countries which has used the Washington Group-Short Set of questions (WG-SS) or questions similar to the WG-SS in population based surveys. Further, the hub has harmonized this data for age and sex characteristics across the countries. 

At this time, 63 countries are represented in the DDH and the World Bank continues to identify and expand the data sources for the Hub.

The data on the Disability Data Hub is available from a variety of sources (see "Where is the data sourced from?"). While all the data displayed on this website is publicly available, different sources have di /content/data/sites/disabilitydatahub/en/disabilitydata@worldbank.org fferent guidelines for re-using their data. Please consult the source organization for the data you wish to use (under the "See source data and resources" button under the indicator name) or see our Terms of Use page for more information.

A note to the data sources: we endeavor to abide by the terms of use of all datasets and include only those that are available for redistribution. Links to the original source are made available in the detail page for each indicator and dataset. In case you prefer your dataset to be omitted from the Disability Data platform, please email the World Bank Disability Data Hub.

If you have any questions, feedback, or encounter any issues, please email the World Bank Disability Data Hub. The Disability Data team aims to ensure the accuracy of our data and information, though some sources may occasionally be outdated or contain inaccuracies. Users, including countries, are encouraged to reach out with any questions regarding the values of the indicators. For feedback or technical issues, please email the World Bank Disability Data Hub.

The World Bank commissioned Fordham University to support the development of estimates for the DDH, in particular regarding underlying methods and codes. This support was provided by Fordham University in the context of the Disability Data Initiative (DDI) and its Disability Statistics Databases.

You can access the Disability Data Hub methodology. A formal methods paper is upcoming.

Explore the site

1. If you're not sure where to start and you're not familiar with disability data, explore by reading the data stories or accessing country or topic pages. These pages highlight gaps between persons with and without disabilities through pre-selected visualizations accompanied by a narrative to help contextualize the data shown. Country pages give you a snapshot across key indicators for that geographical location. Topic profiles visualize key indicators within the topic and list all indicators available within that topic on the Disability Data Hub.

To explore a particular indicator under country or topic pages further or compare the selected country with other countries of interest, click on the indicator name. This will take you to the Indicator specific page whic offers several filteration choices. The profiles can be downloaded as PDFs to attach to reports or send to colleagues. The data can also be downloaded as a CSV file, which can be opened using Microsoft Excel or imported into a statistical or programming software application.

2. All visualizations can be downloaded in PNG, JPEG, PDF, and SVG vector formats.

3. If you're familiar with disability data, but unsure of the specific indicator name, you can review the full list of available indicators in the Disability Data Hub on the "Indicators" page.

The Disability Data Hub seeks to increase access to disability data for policymakers, civil society, development practioners, and academics to inform policy and program development for persons with disabilities. 

The Disability Data Hub was developed by the World Bank's Social Development Department and the Development Economics Data Group with funding support from the Human Rights, Inclusion and Empowernent Trust Fund, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Microsoft, Inc. The Disability Data Initiative (DDI) at Fordham University is a key partner and collaborator of the hub.

 

Search

If you already know what data you need, use the search function at the top of each webpage to type in an indicator or country. Related indicators will appear while you refine your search. You can also download the full dataset in CSV from each indicator page. You can also easily browse the topics and countries on the blue navigation bar at the top. The topics are also accessible from the home page via the "Topics" highlight box. More advanced users may want to review the "Access to APIs" section on this page for details on how to access the data using statistical and programming software applications like R, Stata, and Python.

 

Use the Data

You can access and visualize data on the indicator pages in four main views: grouped bar, stacked bar, dumbbell plot, and beeswarm. Use the filters on the right hand side to disaggregate the data (i.e., by type of functional difficulty, severity of functional difficulty, age, gender, and urbanisation).

The "countries" search bar allows you to compare individual countries and aggregates, or view all countries for your selected category of disaggregation. Sources, definitions and other metadata can be found on the details tab next to the filters tab.

Data for all indicators on the page can be downloaded as a CSV file. The visualization can be downloaded as PNG, JPEG, PDF, and SVG vector files to be added into a PowerPoint or shared via email or social media channels.

To increase accessibility of dynamic charts, the Disability Data Hub offers an AI-generated Visualization Narrative under each chart. Click on the "Visualization Narrative" link and allow a few seconds for the narrative to generate. As with any AI, results may be inaccurate or misleading. Please explore responsibly and apply judgment before incorporating into your work.

 

Ways to access and cite data from the Portal

Download CSV files

Data can be downloaded as CSV files from the "INDICATORS" section. To access the data, click "ACCESS DATA" on the homepage (under the headline) or select "INDICATORS" from the top navigation menu. Then, choose an indicator from the categorized list by topic. On the Indicator page, you can select any country from the list or all countries. Disaggregations are available by age, gender, urban-rural residency, type of functional difficulty, or severity of disability. To download the data, click the CSV file icon in the top right corner after making your selections.

In the "COUNTRIES" section, you can select a country and download data for featured indicators. After making your selection, click the three lines in the right corner of the chart and select "Download CSV".

Access to DataBank

The DataBank is an analysis and visualization tool that empowers users to create custom queries, generate tables, charts, and maps, and seamlessly save, embed, and share their results.   

For detailed information on using the DataBank, please refer to the DataBank FAQs or explore our Knowledge Base articles.

Access to API

Data can be accessed via the World Bank Indicators API endpoint link after selecting a specific indicator under the "Indicator" section (please refer to the API logo under Downloads in the top right corner). The API documentation provides detailed explanations of the call structures for the Indicators API. Since the API includes data from all World Bank databases, users must specify source 92 to retrieve data exclusively for the Disability Data Hub.

Additionally, there are third-party applications and libraries that can facilitate the use of the API depending on your objectives. For more details, please see the Application Showcase.

Citation: 

When no external source is identified, cite the World Bank as follows: World Bank. (2025). Disability Data Hub." 

If a different original source is specified, include the original source name from the metadata followed by the phrase "Data retrieved from World Bank Disability Data Hub". See example below:

"Source: International Labour Organization (ILO). Data retrieved from World Bank Disability Data Hub."