7 Population Profile and Demographic Trends

To fully appreciate the urgency and scale of accessibility needs, it is helpful to understand the demographic scope of disability.  Because there are many definitions of disability, it can be difficult to understand or communicate the true urgency and scale required to think about accessibility.  But it can be safely stated that over 1 billion people worldwide live with a disability. ^[1] According to the World Health Organization, “due to persistent health inequities, [many people with disabilities] die earlier, they have poorer health and functioning, and they are more affected by health emergencies than the general population.”^[2] Roughly 110 million people are considered by the World Health Organization to have significant barriers to functioning in everyday life.^[3]

In Canada, based on 2017 data, 6.2 million people over the age of 15 live with a disability. However, the true number is likely higher.  A more recent count by the Canadian Income Survey (which is not perfectly comparable, as it measures in a different way), counts nearly 9 million Canadians aged 16 years and older (or 28% of the population) with a disability. ^[4] Disabilities are more prevalent in women than in men by a small but significant margin, and Indigenous people are more likely to be living with a disability than non-Indigenous Canadians.^[5] People with disabilities are more likely to experience social isolation.  Based on the most recent data available, 32% of First Nations people living off reserve, 30% of Métis and 19% of Inuit had one or more disabilities that limited them in their daily activities.^[6]  Interestingly, outside Inuit Nunangat (the four Inuit homeland regions in Canada), the disability rate for Inuit is substantially higher (27 percent compared to 16 per cent).^[7]

Within Calgary, the reported prevalence of disability, at under 10% of the population, is much lower than the national average.  As the data is over a decade old, when Calgary’s overall population was under a million, and as the City’s population has since aged somewhat, we can expect the number of Calgarians living with a disability to now be well in excess of 120,000.^[8]

An aging population will push the prevalence of disability ever higher. In Canada, this ranges from 13% (ages 15 to 24) to 47% (aged 75 years and over).^[9] In 2001, there were two people over 65 for every working-aged person in Canada; By 2031 that ratio will double to four-to-one.  Refer to the Institute’s publication Aging and Thriving in Canada for a detailed picture of demographic and other trends, as well as system dynamics, relating to older adults in Canada.^[10]

People with disabilities also represent a growing and formidable market, globally the equivalent size of China, and within Canada representing a population on par with the Greater Toronto Region, with $47 billion in disposable income. ^[11] Nearly $14 billion a year is spent on travel just within North America by people with disabilities, according to the Travel Association of America.^[12]  Companies alert to the unmet needs for this massive market stand to gain competitive advantage.

There are countless demographic and socio-economic factors that intersect with disability.^[13]  For example, women with disabilities are up to four times more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those without disabilities.  According to a study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, an astonishing 30 to 50 percent of all people killed by law enforcement officers are disabled.^[14]