Skip to main content

By type of disability. Counties and Aran, areas and provinces

Persons legally recognised as being disabled. By type of disability. Counties, areas and provinces 2006
Physical Visual Hearing Psychological Mentally ill Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,208 124 65 258 326 6 1,987
Alt Empordà 2,396 257 144 793 520 15 4,125
Alt Penedès 2,543 324 182 527 700 12 4,288
Alt Urgell 544 46 29 100 148 4 871
Alta Ribagorça 124 11 11 17 32 0 195
Anoia 3,331 398 213 621 903 17 5,483
Bages 5,698 787 417 863 1,925 14 9,704
Baix Camp 4,569 562 351 1,782 1,481 37 8,782
Baix Ebre 2,202 243 132 451 627 8 3,663
Baix Empordà 2,404 233 179 777 564 16 4,173
Baix Llobregat 26,575 2,928 1,817 3,786 7,190 47 42,343
Baix Penedès 2,013 201 159 403 512 9 3,297
Barcelonès 90,210 13,142 6,892 12,030 26,868 329 149,471
Berguedà 2,849 383 206 196 677 1 4,312
Cerdanya 215 31 16 81 55 0 398
Conca de Barberà 547 62 23 134 163 3 932
Garraf 3,196 424 207 521 787 10 5,145
Garrigues 695 99 54 113 160 2 1,123
Garrotxa 958 125 62 431 236 2 1,814
Gironès 4,193 421 290 1,268 1,175 14 7,361
Maresme 8,435 1,031 695 1,754 2,463 41 14,419
Montsià 1,628 134 108 374 464 9 2,717
Noguera 1,292 137 119 277 288 7 2,120
Osona 3,269 505 246 768 1,170 7 5,965
Pallars Jussà 449 73 33 80 131 3 769
Pallars Sobirà 170 15 16 30 34 2 267
Pla d'Urgell 1,166 115 79 215 264 7 1,846
Pla de l'Estany 540 50 28 228 148 3 997
Priorat 245 23 16 79 67 2 432
Ribera d'Ebre 532 53 39 126 134 2 886
Ripollès 627 73 66 207 172 6 1,151
Segarra 542 66 33 104 171 0 916
Segrià 8,294 942 703 1,550 2,153 33 13,675
Selva 3,241 322 210 872 689 18 5,352
Solsonès 329 45 35 91 113 1 614
Tarragonès 6,531 850 467 1,501 1,713 33 11,095
Terra Alta 273 31 10 58 70 1 443
Urgell 985 127 76 217 260 5 1,670
Val d'Aran 152 17 13 48 34 0 264
Vallès Occidental 20,991 2,764 2,119 4,629 6,347 165 37,015
Vallès Oriental 9,292 1,094 769 1,740 2,514 38 15,447
Catalonia 225,453 29,268 17,329 40,100 64,448 929 377,527
Metropolità 161,242 21,707 12,681 24,987 46,869 642 268,128
Comarques Gironines 14,985 1,546 1,030 4,563 3,620 78 25,822
Camp de Tarragona 15,113 1,822 1,081 4,157 4,262 90 26,525
Terres de l'Ebre 4,635 461 289 1,009 1,295 20 7,709
Ponent 12,348 1,421 1,013 2,489 3,180 50 20,501
Comarques Centrals 15,476 2,118 1,117 2,539 4,788 40 26,078
Alt Pirineu i Aran 1,654 193 118 356 434 9 2,764
Barcelona 176,392 23,778 13,761 27,433 51,539 681 293,584
Girona 14,514 1,506 993 4,643 3,550 74 25,280
Lleida 14,799 1,701 1,205 2,858 3,802 64 24,429
Tarragona 19,748 2,283 1,370 5,166 5,557 110 34,234
Source: Departament d'Acció Social i Ciutadania. Secretaria General.

Last update: January 10, 2013.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Physical disability
It is divided into two types: Motor: Physical disability suffering people who have affected the ability to move for various reasons (birth defects, accidents, brain injury...). Non-motor: Physical disability with people who for organic causes cannot develop a full life (fatigue, coronary heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease...).
Intellectual disability
Disability presented by persons who, for both congenital and acquired causes, have mental deficiencies. This group is characterized by intellectual function below average and ease of understanding and information reduced. This category does not include people with mental illness.
Recognised disability
Certificate granted to those people with a disability that is equal to or higher than 33% of the threshold established by law. It indicates the diagnosis and degree of handicap expressed in percentage terms and issued by the evaluation and orientation teams (EVO) at care centres for disabled people (CAD) run by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Sensory disability
There are two types: Visual: Disability experienced by people who have a total or partial lack of vision prevents them from living a full life (total or partial blindness). Hearing: Disability experienced by people who have a total or partial lack of hearing prevents them from living a full life and, that as a result of this deficiency, also may lack speech. These situations may have originated from genetic lesions, delivery or in diseases of the mother during pregnancy (total or partial deafness, deaf-muteness...).
Mental illness
Disability experienced by people affected by cognitive, affective and behavioral disorders.

Methodological aspects

The Catalan social services system is the coordinated set of personal services, facilities, activities, economic benefits and of prevention, care and social promotion in Catalonia, which aims to ensure the participation of all citizens in the benefits of social life. Is specifically designed for individuals, families or groups who, by having difficulties in the development and integration into society, lack of personal autonomy, physical, mental or sensory disabilities, family problems or suffer social marginalization, are creditors of collective and caring effort.

The system is divided functionally into primary care social services and social services of specialized care, and is organized territorially in key areas of social services, sectors of county, regional and territorial areas of Catalonia, and in the following areas of action: care for family, childhood and adolescence; care for people with disabilities, old age care and treatment of drug addicts.

The statistics on the disabled population of Catalonia is the result of the operation of a database that feeds information recorded in the assessment and guidance services dependent of the Catalan Institute of Assistance and Social Services (ICASS).

The valuation of disability meets the regulation set by the Royal Decree 1971/1999 of December 23, on the procedure for recognition, declaration and classification of the degree of disability (BOE number 22 of January 26, 2000 ).

The aim of this provision is regulate the recognition of the degree of disability, establish new applicable scales, determine the competent bodies to make the aforementioned recognition and procedure to be followed, all with the purpose of the valuation and classification of the degree of disability affecting the person is uniform throughout the State, and ensure equal conditions for access of citizens to the benefits, economic rights and services given by public bodies.

The WHO international classification defines disability as any restriction or lack of ability of a human to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal. Therefore, the severity of limitations for activities is the fundamental criterion used to develop the scales.

The official typological classification of disabilities is as follows: physical, sensory and mental. The typology exploited statistically encompasses the following groups: motor and non-motor physical, visual, auditory, mental and mentally ill. The tables include the 'no record', which are collected those encodings that cannot be included in any of these main groups.

Regarding the degree of disability ,is divided into three main groups. The first groups degrees of disability between 33% and 64%, which includes people with disabilities with a level of personal autonomy sufficiently important to social and labor insertion at least in a protected work system. The second group comprises degrees of disability between 65% and 74%. This block includes people who, generally speaking, have more difficulties to achieve full employment and social integration. The third group, with degrees of disability equal to or greater than 75%, recorded in most affected people who are likely to require highly specialized tools for social integration.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.