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State information > California Disability Statistics Table From 2003 American Community Survey

California Disability Data Table From the 2003 American Community Survey

Estimates for 2003

An estimated 4,152,000 people in California have a disability, or 12.9% of the population age 5 and over. An estimated 783,000 people, or 2.4% of the population 5 and over, have difficulty performing self-care activities, also known as Activities of Daily Living, such as dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home.

Read more about these data.

Subject Population (Thousands) With a disability (Thousands) With a disability (Percent) With a self-care difficulty (Thousands) With a self-care difficulty (Percent)
Total in California
(ages 5 and over)
32,107 4,152 12.9% 783 2.4%
Disability Type          
Sensory   1,142   235 20.6%
Mobility   2,524   696 27.6%
Cognitive   1,501   446 29.7%
Self-care   783   783  
Leaving the home   1,194   587 49.1%
Work disability   2,242   645 28.8%
Gender          
Male 15,876 1,928 12.1% 320 2.0%
Female 16,232 2,224 13.7% 463 2.9%
Age          
Children (5-17) 6,809 324 4.8% 50 0.7%
    5-15 5,826 276 4.7% 45 0.8%
    16-17 983 48 4.8% 5 0.5%
Working Ages (18-64) 21,716 2,256 10.4% 365 1.7%
    18-44 13,918 958 6.9% 133 1.0%
    45-64 7,798 1,298 16.7% 232 3.0%
Elderly (65+) 3,583 1,571 43.9% 368 10.3%
    65-74 1,877 615 32.7% 115 6.1%
    75-84 1,291 654 50.7% 146 11.3%
    85+ 414 302 72.9% 107 25.8%
Race          
White 22,071 2987 13.5% 535 2.4%
African American 2,217 369 16.7% 93 4.2%
Asian/Pacific Islander 4,303 419 9.7% 80 1.9%
American Indian/Alaska Native 493 114 23.0% 30 6.1%
Ethnicity          
Hispanic 10,724 1,044 9.7% 184 1.7%
Non-Hispanic 21,383 3,108 14.5% 598 2.8%
Family Income          
In poverty 4,145 717 17.3% 150 3.6%
Above poverty 27,864 3,429 12.3% 631 2.3%
Benefit Recipiency          
Social Security (OASDI) 3,817 1,701 44.6% 395 10.3%
Supplemental Security Income 669 634 94.9% 205 30.6%
Employment (Ages 18-64)          
Employed 14,995 813 5.4% 51 0.3%
Unemployed (in labor force) 1,355 155 11.4% 10 0.7%
Not in labor force 5,281 1,288 24.4% 305 5.8%
Living Arrangement          
Lives alone 3,037 818 26.9% 149 4.9%
Lives with others 29,070 3,333 11.5% 633 2.2%

Source: Tabulations by the Center for PAS from the 2003 American Community Survey (ACS).

About the California 2003 ACS Disability Data

The Center for Personal Assistance Services has compiled state and national data on the prevalence of overall disability and of self-care difficulty, by gender, age, race and ethnicity, type of disability, family income, benefit recipiency, employment status, and living arrangement. These statistics are based on our tabulations of public use data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for 2003, containing information on over 1 million residents of randomly selected U.S. households. Because it is a household survey, people living in institutions such as nursing homes are not included.

These statistics from the 2003 ACS are both more current and more valid than estimates obtained from either the 2000 Census or previous years of the ACS. Problems discovered in two of the six disability questions, leading to a substantial overestimate of the disability population in the 2000 Census, have been fixed in the 2003 ACS questionnaire. These problems also affected prior years of the ACS, but to a lesser extent than the 2000 Census, due to different data collection procedures.

Previous years of disability data from the ACS:

 

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