100 Countries and Counting: Expanding the availability of disability-disaggregated data

The participation of 1.3 billion persons with disabilities worldwide is fundamental to advancing equity, protecting human rights, and promoting sustainable development. In order to monitor progress, disability disaggregated statistics are needed. The Disability Data Initiative (DDI) is a global network of researchers who systematically map and analyse available disability data in national datasets worldwide. The network regularly reviews the questions of population and housing censuses and national household surveys effectively monitoring whether state parties can develop disability-disaggregated statistics usable to monitor the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and SDGs. For this purpose, the DDI has developed an approach to identify and analyse available data. In particular, the Disability Statistics – Estimates (DS-E) Database presents disability-disaggregated data on education, personal activities, health, standard of living, insecurity and poverty. To address the lack of disability-disaggregated data, the DS-E database will be expanded to cover more than 100 countries by 2028.

The DDI team will expand the coverage of disability-disaggregated data in the DS-E to at least 100 countries including high-income countries.

That means we will analyze more micro-datasets, produce results and disseminate them through our interactive platforms, APIs and downloadable files.

Our regional teams meet regularly to review progress, identify challenges and distribute tasks. We can report at the 2026 UNWDF on our recent results and can present further results at future UNWDFs.