Sickness and disability

One in seven working-age adults identifies as having a disability in OECD countries. Older people, women, and those with lower levels of education are more likely to report living with disability. 

Disability is becoming more common in many OECD countries, with an ageing population being the reason for about half of the overall increase. There has also been a sharp increase among young adults aged 15–29, driven largely by growing mental health conditions.

In every OECD country, people with disability have lower employment rates than those without disability. If people with disability had the same average employment rate as people without disability, about one in twenty working‑age adults across the OECD would move into work.

However, comparing these rates across countries and over time is not straightforward. People differ in how likely they are to say they have a disability, and this affects the numbers. 

On average, people with disability earn about 13% less than people without one. A big part of this gap is linked to education. Despite recent improvements, people with disability are still much more likely to have a low level of education, with rates about 10 percentage points higher than people without a disability.

Across OECD countries, only a minority of working-age people with a disability who are not in work receive disability benefits, although most of them do receive some other form of social support. Among this group, about 40% receive a mix of old-age pensions, unemployment benefits and social assistance, while only 30% receive disability benefits.