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

Tennessee Disability Data Table From the 2003 American Community Survey

Estimates for 2003

An estimated 950,000 people in Tennessee have a disability, or 17.9% of the population age 5 and over. An estimated 174,000 people, or 3.3% 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 Tennessee
(ages 5 and over)
5,313 950 17.9% 174 3.3%
Disability Type          
Sensory   268   51 19.0%
Mobility   592   157 26.6%
Cognitive   347   99 28.4%
Self-care   174   174  
Leaving the home   283   131 46.2%
Work disability   559   149 26.6%
Gender          
Male 2,577 432 16.8% 71 2.7%
Female 2,736 518 18.9% 103 3.8%
Age          
Children (5-17) 1,010 76 7.5% 9 0.9%
    5-15 852 64 7.5% 9 1.0%
    16-17 158 12 7.8% <0.5 0.2%
Working Ages (18-64) 3,622 532 14.7% 91 2.5%
    18-44 2,182 209 9.6% 31 1.4%
    45-64 1,440 323 22.4% 60 4.2%
Elderly (65+) 681 342 50.2% 73 10.8%
    65-74 385 148 38.6% 24 6.3%
    75-84 231 139 60.0% 27 11.8%
    85+ 66 55 83.7% 22 33.5%
Race          
White 4,303 785 18.2% 143 3.3%
African American 871 148 17.0% 29 3.3%
Asian/Pacific Islander 75 8 10.4% 1 0.7%
American Indian/Alaska Native 39 16 40.7% 4 9.6%
Ethnicity          
Hispanic 118 7 6.4% <0.5 0.3%
Non-Hispanic 5,195 942 18.1% 173 3.3%
Family Income          
In poverty 701 222 31.7% 48 6.9%
Above poverty 4,597 726 15.8% 125 2.7%
Benefit Recipiency          
Social Security (OASDI) 850 445 52.4% 102 12.0%
Supplemental Security Income 107 103 96.1% 31 29.0%
Employment (Ages 18-64)          
Employed 2,579 188 7.3% 13 0.5%
Unemployed (in labor force) 180 33 18.2% 4 2.0%
Not in labor force 855 311 36.3% 75 8.7%
Living Arrangement          
Lives alone 654 220 33.7% 39 6.0%
Lives with others 4,659 729 15.7% 134 2.9%

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

About the Tennessee 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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