• Highlights

• In 2022, among the 198.3 million persons aged 2 and over in the country, 14.4 million (or 7.3%) were persons with disabilities. The number of women with disabilities (8.3 million) surpassed that of men in the same condition (6.1 million).
• Whereas 2.2% of the population aged 2 to 14 had some type of disability, in the group aged 15 to 59 the percentage rises to 5.4% and reaches 27.5% among persons aged 70 and over.
• As for the 14.4 million persons with disability in the country, 7.9 million had difficulty seeing, being followed by persons with difficulty walking or climbing up stairs (5.2 million persons), grasping small objects or opening and closing lids (2.7 million) and hearing (2.6 million).
• in Brazil, 2.0% of the population had two or more functional difficulties.
• in 16.0% of the enumerated housing units, there was at least one resident with disability. The Northeast recorded the highest percentage (19.5%), followed by the North (17.8%), the Southeast (14.7%), the Central West (14.3%) and the South (14.1%).
• In 2022, among persons aged 15 and over with disability, 2.9 million were illiterate. That corresponds to an illiteracy rate of 21.3%, or four times the illiteracy rate of persons without disability (5.2%).
• in Brazil, 63.1% of the persons aged 25 and over with disabilities did not have schooling or primary school education. among persons without disabilities, this proportion was almost half as that (32.3%).
• In 2022, only 7.4% of the persons with disabilities had finished higher education, versus 19.5% of the persons without disabilities.

Preliminary results of the 2022 Census show that Brazil has 14.4 million persons with disabilities, which corresponds to 7.3% of the 198.3 million persons aged 2 and over in the population. Elderly persons aged 60 and over made up 45.4% of persons with disabilities, whereas, in the population without disabilities they were 14.0%. Women with disabilities were 8.3 million and men, 6.1 million. In all Major Regions, women with disabilities were more numerous than men in the same conditions. That can be associated to the higher female longevity in the Brazilian population.

Data are found in the publication “2022 Population Census: Persons with Disability and persons Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum - Preliminary sample results,” released today (23) by the IBGE. The release event took place today, starting at 10 am, at the Brazilian Bar Association - Rio Grande do Norte Sector, in Natal (RN), with live stream on Digital IBGE. See also the report on the population with autism. 

Over the years, Brazil has witnessed discussions promoted by international cooperation bodies about ways of collecting disability data by means of household surveys. Since 2010, the IBGE has adopted the survey of functional domains, a new approach to disability recommended by the Group of Washington, adapted to the Brazilian reality. Thus, although disability-related issues are found in the Censuses of 1991, 2010 and 2022, and in the National Survey of Health (PNS) and in Continuous PNAD, there are methodological differences between them, which makes comparisons impossible. 

In the nine states of the Northeast Region, the percentages of persons with disabilities surpassed the national average (7.3%). Alagoas had the biggest proportion of persons with disabilities in the country (9.6%) in its population. Piauí (9.3%), Ceará and Pernambuco (both with 8.9%) followed. Out of the Northeast, Rio de Janeiro was the state with the biggest proportion (7.4%). The smallest proportion of persons with disabilities were found in Roraima (5.6%), Mato Grosso (5.7%) and Santa Catarina (6.0%).

Luciana dos Santos, analyst at the IBGE, observes: “Although it is not yet possible to assess, based on the 2022 Census data, the relationship between the occurrence of disability and income, studies indicate a correlation between the prevalence of disability with lower access to basic services, educatio, health nd quality of living in general. In this context, the Northeast Region, historically characterized by low human developement indexes, ends up being more vulnerable to circumstances that  can cause disability, such as malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, etc. That is, the higher incidence of disability in the Northeast reflects the social and economic inequalities in that Major Region.”

More than 1/4 of the persons aged 70 and over have some type of disability 

The prevalence of disability increases with age. Whereas only  2.2% of the population aged 2 to 14 had some type of disability, the percentage rose to 5.4% among adults aged 15 to 59 years of age and reaches 27.5% among persons aged 70 and over.

Among persons with disabilities, 32.8% were aged 60 to 79, versus 12.5% of persons without disabilities. In the group aged 80 and over, 12.6% were persons with disabilities and only 1.5% were persons without disabilities.

Sight impairment affects 7.9 million persons in the country

Considering the total number of persons with disabilities (14.4 million), the most frequent functional difficulty was sight impairment, despite the use of glasses or contact lenses, which reached about 7.9 million persons. It was followed by difficulty in walking or climbing up stairs, despite the use of a prosthesis or a walking aid, reaching a total of 5.2 million persons.

The functional difficulty related to manual dexterity (the ability to grasp objects or to open or close lids) and the functional difficulty relative to mental functions (with effects on communication self-care, labor or studies reached 2.7 million persons each. Hearing impairment, despite the use of a hearing aid, reached 2.6 million persons.

About 2.0% of the population in the country aged 2 and over had one or more functional impairment. Among Major Regions, the highest percentage (2.4%) of persons with disability with two or more functional difficulties was found in the Northeast Region.

7.9% of the Indigenous persons aged 2 and over have some type of disability

Among the 1.6 million Indigenous persons aged 2 and over in the country, 131 thousand or (or 7.9%) had some type of disability, considering criteria of color or race and belonging. Although the biggest share of the Indigenous population in the country (43.8%) lives in the North Region, the Northeast had the biggest proportion of indigenous persons with disabilities (42.4%), followed by the North Region (33.5%).

In the Indigenous population, 7.9% were persons without disabilities, but among Indigenous persons aged 65 and over, this percentage reached 30.6%. In the Indigenous population in this age group, 33.3% of the women and 27.2% of the men had some type of disability.

According to color or race categories, the 2022 Census showed that most  of the persons with disabilities in Brazil declared to be brown (6.4 million) or white (6.1 million). This group was followed by black persons with disabilities, with approximately 1.8 million; Indigenous (considering the color or race aspect only) with 78 thousand; and Asians, with 55 thousand.

The remainder is temporarily in Portuguese.

19,3% dos domicílios do país sem banheiro tinham algum morador com deficiência

Em 16,0% dos domicílios particulares ocupados recenseados do país havia pelo menos um morador, adulto ou criança, com deficiência. A Região Nordeste apresentou o maior percentual de domicílios com ao menos um morador com deficiência (19,5%), seguida pelas regiões Norte (17,8%), Sudeste (14,7%), Centro-Oeste (14,3%) e Sul (14,1%).

Nos domicílios com banheiro exclusivo, 15,9% tinham pelo menos um morador com deficiência. Esse percentual foi maior nos domicílios que possuem apenas banheiro de uso comum a mais de um domicílio (18,5%) e ainda mais elevado nos domicílios sem banheiro ou sanitário (19,3%).

Entre os domicílios conectados à rede geral de água e que a utilizavam como forma principal de abastecimento, 15,7% tinham pelo menos um morador com deficiência. Já nos domicílios sem ligação com a rede geral, 18,0% tinham pelo menos um morador com deficiência.

População com deficiência está longe da meta do PNE para o analfabetismo

Para orientar as políticas públicas na área da educação e promover melhorias nos indicadores educacionais do país, a Meta 9 do Plano Nacional de Educação (PNE) estabeleceu a redução da taxa de analfabetismo entre pessoas com 15 anos ou mais para 6,5% até 2015 e a erradicação do analfabetismo até 2024.

Em 2022, na população com 15 anos ou mais de idade, havia 2,9 milhões de pessoas com deficiência e analfabetas, o que representa uma taxa de analfabetismo de 21,3%. Entre as pessoas sem deficiência da mesma faixa etária, havia 7,8 milhões de analfabetos, correspondendo a uma taxa de analfabetismo de 5,2%.

Quase metade (48,0%) das pessoas com deficiência e analfabetas residia no Nordeste, enquanto 27,7% viviam no Sudeste. Piauí (38,8%), Alagoas (36,8) e Paraíba (34,6%) apresentam os índices mais elevados de analfabetismo entre pessoas com deficiência, enquanto as menores taxas estavam em Santa Catarina (11,6%), Distrito Federal (11,8%) e Rio de Janeiro (12,1%).

O Censo 2022 revela um cenário de profunda desigualdade para a população com deficiência. Nesse grupo, a taxa de analfabetismo entre pessoas de 15 anos ou mais (21,3%) foi mais do que o triplo da meta estabelecida. Apesar dos progressos obtidos no conjunto da população, o não cumprimento da meta do PNE para esse segmento mostra que as pessoas com deficiência seguem à margem dos avanços educacionais.

“No entanto, observam-se avanços significativos na alfabetização das pessoas com deficiência, evidenciados pela taxa de analfabetismo entre jovens de 15 a 17 anos, que é de 11,2% — índice 2,5 vezes inferior ao verificado entre idosos com 60 anos ou mais, cuja taxa atinge 27,9%. Apesar desse progresso, ainda persistem barreiras relevantes que comprometem a plena inclusão educacional dessa população”, ressaltou a analista do IBGE.

Pessoas com deficiência têm menor acesso à Educação

No Brasil, 63,1% das pessoas de 25 anos ou mais com deficiência não completaram o ensino fundamental, enquanto entre as pessoas sem deficiência essa proporção era de 32,3%. No outro extremo, apenas 7,4% das pessoas com deficiência concluíram o ensino superior, contra 19,5% entre as pessoas sem deficiência. Além disso, 25,2% das pessoas com deficiência terminaram a educação básica obrigatória (no mínimo, o ensino médio). Entre as pessoas sem deficiência, essa proporção era mais do que o dobro: 53,4%.

Entre as pessoas sem deficiência, 56,4% das mulheres e 50,1% dos homens concluíram a educação básica - uma diferença de 6,3 pontos percentuais. Já entre as pessoas com deficiência, 26,2% das mulheres alcançaram esse nível, contra 23,7% dos homens, mostrando diferença menor: 2,5 pontos percentuais.

Em 2022, aproximadamente, 1,6 milhão de pessoas de 6 anos ou mais de idade com deficiência frequentavam escola nos mais diversos níveis de ensino. As taxas de escolarização (proporção de estudantes em determinada faixa etária) entre as crianças de 6 a 14 anos eram de 98,4% entre pessoas sem deficiência e de 92,6% entre aquelas com deficiência.

No entanto, a partir dos 15 anos, observa-se uma queda na frequência escolar, especialmente entre pessoas com deficiência. Na faixa de 15 a 17 anos, 85,5% das pessoas sem deficiência estavam na escola, frente a 79,4% das com deficiência.

Mais sobre a pesquisa

O Censo 2022 – Pessoas com Deficiência e Pessoas diagnosticadas com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) – Resultados preliminares da amostra traz os perfis sociodemográfico e educacional das pessoas de 2 anos ou mais de idade com deficiência e das pessoas diagnosticadas por profissional de saúde com transtorno do espectro autista (TEA).

Alinhado às diretrizes do Grupo de Washington para Estatísticas sobre Pessoas com Deficiência (Washington Group on Disability Statistics), o Censo Demográfico 2022 incorporou quesitos voltados à identificação de cinco domínios de dificuldades funcionais: enxergar, ouvir, mobilidade com os membros inferiores, coordenação motora fina e cognição e comunicação.

Os indicadores são detalhados para os recortes Brasil, Grandes Regiões, Unidades da Federação e Municípios e estão desagregados, também, segundo a cor ou raça, o sexo e os grupos de idade dos moradores. Os resultados poderão ser acessados no portal do IBGE e em plataformas como o SIDRA e Panorama do Censo, no qual poderão ser visualizados, também, por meio de mapas interativos.