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State information > Rhode Island Disability Statistics Table From 2003 American Community Survey

Rhode Island Disability Data Table From the 2003 American Community Survey

Estimates for 2003

An estimated 156,000 people in Rhode Island have a disability, or 16.0% of the population age 5 and over. An estimated 24,000 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 Rhode Island
(ages 5 and over)
976 156 16.0% 24 2.4%
Disability Type          
Sensory   44   8 17.0%
Mobility   86   20 23.6%
Cognitive   55   13 22.9%
Self-care   24   24  
Leaving the home   39   16 39.7%
Work disability   81   18 22.7%
Gender          
Male 470 75 16.0% 10 2.0%
Female 507 81 16.0% 14 2.8%
Age          
Children (5-17) 182 15 8.2% 1 0.6%
    5-15 156 13 8.6% 1 0.6%
    16-17 25 1 5.8% <0.5 <0.05%
Working Ages (18-64) 653 78 12.0% 11 1.7%
    18-44 394 32 8.1% 3 0.7%
    45-64 259 46 17.9% 9 3.3%
Elderly (65+) 141 63 44.6% 11 8.1%
    65-74 67 22 32.6% 3 3.9%
    75-84 55 27 49.2% 4 8.0%
    85+ 19 14 73.7% 4 23.0%
Race          
White 844 139 16.4% 21 2.5%
African American 54 7 12.5% 1 1.8%
Asian/Pacific Islander 35 3 9.8% 1 1.4%
American Indian/Alaska Native 9 2 21.4% 1 6.6%
Ethnicity          
Hispanic 90 14 15.3% 2 1.9%
Non-Hispanic 887 143 16.1% 22 2.5%
Family Income          
In poverty 105 33 31.4% 6 5.3%
Above poverty 866 123 14.1% 18 2.1%
Benefit Recipiency          
Social Security (OASDI) 156 75 47.9% 14 8.7%
Supplemental Security Income 24 23 97.2% 5 18.7%
Employment (Ages 18-64)          
Employed 490 29 6.0% 2 0.5%
Unemployed (in labor force) 35 4 12.2% <0.5 0.6%
Not in labor force 125 45 35.6% 9 6.9%
Living Arrangement          
Lives alone 127 44 34.6% 7 5.6%
Lives with others 850 112 13.2% 17 2.0%

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

About the Rhode Island 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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