PROFILE OF THE DISABLED

POPULATION IN ALBANIA

Céline Ferré,

Emira Galanxhi

Olgeta Dhono

KEY FINDINGS

6.2% of the adult population in Albania is disabled

Disabled working-age adults are 2 times more likely

to be out of the labor force than non-disabled adults

1 in 5 youth (15-64 year-old) with vision restriction

is looking for a job but cannot find one

Disability prevalence does NOT vary across income

quintiles

Disabled persons from the bottom quintile are 2

times more likely to experience or more disabilities

than the top quintile

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DATA AND DEFINITIONS

Washington Group (WG) general measure on

disability

Represent the most commonly occurring limitations in

basic activity functioning

Set of 6 questions asked in the census: seeing, hearing,

mobility, self-care, cognition, and communication

Two datasets

Census 2011

LSMS 2012 with similar questions on disability (seeing,

hearing, body deformation, limbs, cognition,

communication and other)

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6.2% OF THE ADULT POPULATION IN ALBANIA

SUFFERS FROM SOME SORT OF DISABILITY

2,084,137 individuals aged 15 and above

Disability prevalence:

Most common = movement restrictions (3.7%)

Least common = hearing and communication (1.7% and 1.%)

Vision, learning and self-care fall somewhere in between

Results are consistent with the evidence form other Eastern European and Central Asian countries (Mete, 2008)

22% of the population thus reports having some difficulty, strong difficulty or inability to perform daily tasks 6

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GEOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN

Results don’t vary much across regions

Tirana displays the lowest incidence of disability (less

than 5%)

Gjirokaster has the highest incidence with 8% of the

population

Disability incidence is higher in less connected

areas…

… but concentrated – in terms of absolute numbers

– around the biggest agglomerations: Tirane,

Durres, Shkodra, Elbasan

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DISABILITY DISTRIBUTION,

CENSUS 2011

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Number of persons 15 year and over

who reported at least disability /

Total population aged 15 years and

over

Ratio calculated for each commune

and municipality

OLDER AGE COHORTS ARE MORE AFFECTED BY

DIFFICULTIES IN PERFORMING DAILY TASKS…

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… ESPECIALLY PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES

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INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES ARE

CONCENTRATED IN LARGER HOUSEHOLDS

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DISABILITY IS CORRELATED WITH LOWER

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Disabled children are overrepresented in the

category of primary-school-aged children not

attending school

75% only of children with some disabilities are enrolled

The picture varies greatly by type of disability faced

by children

more than 2/3 of the children with eyesight,

communication, cognition and self-care impairments are

enrolled in school

only 1/2 of children with hearing difficulties or mobility

difficulties are attending schools

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THE EDUCATION GAP IS PARTICULARLY LARGE

FOR YOUTH AND ELDERS

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DISABLED ADULTS ARE 5 TIMES LESS LIKELY TO BE

WORKING THAN THE NON-DISABLED POPULATION

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THOSE WITH COGNITIVE, SELF-CARE AND

COMMUNICATION RESTRICTIONS EMERGE AS THE

MOST DISADVANTAGED IN TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT

PROSPECTS

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WORKING-AGE VALID MEMBERS OF HOUSEHOLDS

WITH AT LEAST ONE DISABLED HOUSEHOLD

MEMBER ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE EMPLOYED

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DISABILITY AND INCOME

No higher prevalence of disability among lower

expenditure groups

Yet the population in the top quintile appears to

suffer more from partial limitations

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SOCIAL TRANSFERS

Households with disabled members are quite

dependent on social protection

79% of all households with a disabled member are

covered by at least one social assistance transfer

But half of the households who receive the disability

assistance have no disabled member

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GROUPING DISABLED POPULATION INTO

GROUPS

We use a Latent Class Analysis method to group

individuals with disabilities

Each group is made of people who look most like one

another

Each group looks least like one another

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