Question Period Note: Release of the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability

What are the implications of the findings from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability? What is the Government doing to advance the inclusion of persons with disabilities?

The new results from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability show that 8.0 million Canadians – or more than 27% of the population - have a disability.

This makes it clear that we all have a stake in making sure that everyone can participate in and contribute to our society.

Since 2015, the Government has made it a priority to support persons with disabilities to live productive and rewarding lives. This has included:

Passing the Accessible Canada Act, which aims to have a barrier-free Canada by 2040.

Publishing the first-ever Disability Inclusion Action Plan in October 2022, which provides a blueprint for Government action to transform the lives of persons with disabilities.

Passing the Canada Disability Benefit Act in June 2023 with unanimous support in Parliament.

We know there is more to do. As we move forward with the Disability Inclusion Action Plan, we will continue to work with persons with disabilities and community partners to ensure that it evolves to meet the changing needs of Canadians with disabilities.

This includes the work currently underway to develop the regulations for the Canada Disability Benefit and to move forward with its implementation.

Release of the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability

Statistics Canada released the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) on December 1, 2023. The CSD is the official source of data on persons with disabilities aged 15 and over in Canada, collecting information on the lived experiences of persons with disabilities. Data from the CSD are used to plan and evaluate services, programs and policies for Canadians living with disabilities to help enable their full participation in society. New data offer an opportunity to examine changes in disability over the past five years.

The release of the 2022 CSD included an article in the Statistics Canada publication, The Daily, which outlined the following key findings:

27% of Canadians aged 15 years and over, or 8.0 million people, have one or more disabilities that limit them in their daily activities. This is an increase from the 2017 CSD, in which 22% (6.2 million) were identified as having a disability.

The rate of disability is higher among women (30%) than men (24%), following the same pattern from 2017.

Youth aged 15 to 24 years, the working-age population (25 to 64 years) and seniors (65 years and over) all experienced an increase in the rate of disability between 2017 and 2022. In the 2022 CSD, 20% of youth have a disability, an increase of 7 percentage points over 2017 when the disability rate was 13%. Nearly one-quarter of working-age adults (24%) have a disability in the 2022 CSD, an increase of 4 percentage points over 2017 when the rate was 20%. In the 2022 CSD, the disability rate for seniors is 40%, an increase of 3 percentage points from 2017 when the rate was 38%.

Among persons with a disability, the most common disability type in the 2022 CSD, as it was in 2017, is pain-related disability; 62% of persons with a disability report this type of disability. Flexibility (40%), mobility (39%), and mental health-related (39%) disabilities are the next most prevalent types of disability.

The prevalence of mental health-related, seeing, learning, memory, and developmental disabilities increased between 2017 and 2022. The largest increase belonged to mental health-related disabilities, which increased by 6 percentage points, from 33% in 2017.

Overall, 59% of persons with disabilities have ‘milder’ disabilities (classified as having a mild or moderate disability) and 41% have ‘more severe’ disabilities (classified as having a severe or very severe disability). The proportion of persons with disabilities having milder disabilities increased by 2 percentage points between 2017 and 2022, while the proportion of persons with disabilities having more severe disabilities decreased by the same amount.

According to the 2022 CSD, 62% of working-age adults (25 to 64 years of age) with disabilities were employed, compared to 78% of persons without disabilities. This represents 3 percentage point increase from the 2017 survey. When combined with a slight decrease in the employment rate of persons without disabilities, this means that the employment gap between those with and without disabilities has closed by 5 percentage points.

In the 2022 CSD, the employment rate was lower among people with more severe disabilities. Three out of four persons with milder disabilities aged 25 to 64 years (74%) were employed, while less than half of persons with more severe disabilities aged 25 to 64 years (42%) were employed.

According to the 2022 CSD, the median personal after-tax income of persons with disabilities was $32,870, compared to $39,490 for persons without disabilities. The median personal after-tax income for those with more severe disabilities ($28,110) was lower than persons with milder disabilities ($36,900).

In the 2022 CSD, 72% of persons with disabilities report that they experienced one or more barriers to accessibility in the past year. Persons with more severe disabilities experienced more barriers to accessibility.

Additional data and findings will be released through subsequent Statistics Canada publications, the next of which will be a detailed profile of the demographic, income and employment situation of Canadians with disabilities that is expected to be published towards the end of March 2024.

“The Canadian Survey on Disability is a critical source of information on persons with disabilities and the barriers they face. The findings released today reaffirm how important it is to ensure that Canadians with disabilities have equal opportunities to contribute to their communities. Our Government is committed to working with persons with disabilities, the disability community and other partners to achieve an inclusive Canada.”