U S CENSUS - Disability : Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 : Sept 2011

2011 U. S. CENSUS

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010
Issued September 2011

Disability in the Current Population Survey

In June 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began asking Current Population Survey respondents about their
disability status in order to produce monthly employment statistics in accordance with Executive Order 13078.* Six
questions were added to the survey which asked whether any civilians aged 15 and older in the household had difficulty:
(1) hearing;
(2) seeing;
(3) remembering, concentrating, or making decisions;
(4) walking or climbing stairs;
(5) dressing or bathing;
(6) doing errands alone such as shopping or going to a doctor’s visit.

If respondents reported having any one of the six difficulty types, they were considered to have a disability. These six types and their combination
as a collective disability measure are consistent with definitions of disability used in the American Community Survey (ACS), the American Housing Survey (AHS), and other national household surveys.

*See for details.

Income in the United States

Disability Status of Householder
In 2010, 9.5 percent of householders (8.8 million) aged 18 to 64 reported
having a disability (Table 1). The median income of these households
was $25,550 in 2010, compared with a median of $58,736 for households
with a householder that did not report a disability. Real median income
declined for both types of households between 2009 and 2010. The income
of households maintained by a householder with a disability declined
by 8.5 percent, compared with a 2.1 percent decline for households
maintained by a householder without a disability.

Poverty in the United States

Disability Status
Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate and number in poverty for
people aged 18 to 64 with a disability rose from 25.0 percent and 3.7 million to 27.9 percent and 4.2 million. Among people aged 18 to 64 without
a disability, 12.5 percent and 22.0 million were in poverty in 2010—up
from 12.0 percent and 21.0 million in 2009. People aged 18 to 64 with
a disability represented 15.9 percent of people aged 18 to 64 in poverty
compared to 7.8 percent of all people aged 18 to 64.

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States

Disability Status
Among those with a disability aged 18 to 64, both the rate and number
of uninsured increased in 2010, to 17.3 percent (2.6 million) from 16.0
percent (2.3 million) in 2009 (Table 8). For those without a disability aged 18 to 64, the rate and number of uninsured in 2010 were 22.3 percent and 39.2 million, not statistically different from 2009 estimates.

# For the full report (pdf) visit: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf