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

Persons legally recognised as being disabled. By type of disability. Counties, areas and provinces 2011
Physical Visual Hearing Psychological Mentally ill Not stated Total
Alt Camp 1,549 174 96 349 466 6 2,640
Alt Empordà 3,154 308 209 914 763 9 5,357
Alt Penedès 3,181 374 281 632 1,041 9 5,518
Alt Urgell 580 57 41 104 211 3 996
Alta Ribagorça 117 10 13 19 32 0 191
Anoia 3,997 468 322 708 1,371 17 6,883
Bages 7,410 884 667 1,142 2,653 12 12,768
Baix Camp 5,498 727 573 2,120 2,228 29 11,175
Baix Ebre 2,401 293 180 528 1,359 6 4,767
Baix Empordà 3,421 264 255 885 794 9 5,628
Baix Llobregat 31,338 3,350 2,802 4,245 9,912 36 51,683
Baix Penedès 3,248 275 284 538 1,013 9 5,367
Barcelonès 98,963 13,085 9,243 13,091 32,273 239 166,894
Berguedà 3,089 410 289 229 921 0 4,938
Cerdanya 306 37 21 100 62 0 526
Conca de Barberà 603 77 40 163 196 3 1,082
Garraf 3,986 512 324 626 1,203 7 6,658
Garrigues 712 93 60 127 176 2 1,170
Garrotxa 1,329 147 97 477 335 2 2,387
Gironès 5,570 553 414 1,502 1,694 12 9,745
Maresme 11,181 1,252 1,144 2,021 3,388 33 19,019
Montsià 1,887 181 151 468 1,037 7 3,731
Noguera 1,257 143 152 286 362 5 2,205
Osona 4,344 587 418 927 1,684 5 7,965
Pallars Jussà 514 71 57 81 165 2 890
Pallars Sobirà 178 20 19 32 50 2 301
Pla d'Urgell 1,143 123 102 273 329 6 1,976
Pla de l'Estany 743 71 51 242 223 0 1,330
Priorat 272 22 31 77 84 3 489
Ribera d'Ebre 580 77 54 144 238 4 1,097
Ripollès 812 94 87 229 242 6 1,470
Segarra 570 77 40 123 206 0 1,016
Segrià 8,540 1,018 881 1,772 2,715 28 14,954
Selva 4,777 453 387 1,017 1,070 14 7,718
Solsonès 394 46 46 104 134 1 725
Tarragonès 8,016 1,006 683 1,982 2,648 30 14,365
Terra Alta 312 34 18 72 141 1 578
Urgell 1,099 159 96 258 353 3 1,968
Val d'Aran 170 21 12 50 43 0 296
Vallès Occidental 24,265 3,162 2,943 5,428 9,399 128 45,325
Vallès Oriental 12,870 1,278 1,154 2,053 3,739 29 21,123
Catalonia 264,376 31,993 24,737 46,138 86,953 717 454,914
Metropolità 178,617 22,127 17,286 26,838 58,711 465 304,044
Comarques Gironines 19,806 1,890 1,500 5,266 5,121 52 33,635
Camp de Tarragona 15,938 2,006 1,423 4,691 5,622 71 29,751
Terres de l'Ebre 5,180 585 403 1,212 2,775 18 10,173
Ponent 13,321 1,613 1,331 2,839 4,141 44 23,289
Comarques Centrals 15,237 1,927 1,420 2,402 5,392 18 26,396
Alt Pirineu i Aran 1,865 216 163 386 563 7 3,200
Penedès 14,412 1,629 1,211 2,504 4,628 42 24,426
Barcelona 204,625 25,361 19,589 31,100 67,589 515 348,779
Girona 20,051 1,921 1,516 5,349 5,163 52 34,052
Lleida 15,334 1,845 1,522 3,248 4,791 52 26,792
Tarragona 24,366 2,866 2,110 6,441 9,410 98 45,291
Source: Ministry of Social Welfare and Family.
Note: Law 23/2010, of July 22, on the creation of the area of Penedès, divides Catalonia into eight territorial planning areas. This change implies that the data for the Metropolitan Area, Central Counties and Camp de Tarragona are not directly comparable with previous years.

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.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".