The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 38,000 Bahamians aged five and older reported living with a disability in the 2022 census — nearly four times the number recorded in 2010.

However, officials have cautioned that the sharp increase partly reflects a major change in how disability was measured.

The Bahamas National Statistical Institute’s latest disability report found that 38,551 people, or 10.3 percent of the population aged five and older, reported at least one disability. The 2010 census recorded 10,138 people with disabilities, but officials said the figures are not directly comparable because the latest census used different questions.

Women accounted for most people with disabilities, representing 57.1 percent, or 22,021 people, compared with 42.9 percent, or 16,530 men.
The report, the third release from the 2022 Census of Population and Housing, found that disability increased sharply with age. Five percent of adults aged 18 to 29 reported a disability, rising to 15.9 percent among those aged 50 to 59, 39.5 percent among those aged 70 to 79, and 63.9 percent among people aged 80 and older.

The census also exposed income disparities. Among people aged 18 and older, persons with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to live in households earning less than $5,000 a year, at 5.5 percent compared with 3.8 percent. They were also more likely to live in households earning between $5,001 and $10,000 annually, at 5.8 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

By contrast, 10.8 percent of people without disabilities lived in households earning more than $100,000 a year, compared with 9.4 percent of persons with disabilities.

The findings were released as BNSI officials and disability advocates acknowledged that the census does not provide a complete picture of disability in The Bahamas, particularly mental health and neurological conditions.
Chief Census Officer Kim Saunders urged the public to treat the data as an estimate and a starting point for further study.
“We recommend that the disability data be used solely as an estimation of persons with disabilities. The data can be used as the benchmark data to further investigate the causes and the other issues that are not inclusive in the Washington group,” she said.

For the 2022 census, The Bahamas adopted the Washington Group Short Set of questions, an internationally recognised tool developed by the United Nations Statistical Commission to improve the quality and comparability of disability data globally.

The survey measured six functional domains: seeing, hearing, walking or climbing stairs, remembering or concentrating, self-care and communicating. People who reported “some difficulty”, “a lot of difficulty” or “cannot do at all” in at least one category were classified as persons with disabilities.

“The Washington Group specifically zeroes in on those six main functions and they are universal functions,” Ms Saunders said. 

“The purpose of this section is not to have a look at illnesses or medical conditions. We just want to have a look at those functions that limit persons in their daily activities, and from that estimation you can have other specialised surveys that dig deeper into disability.”
BNSI officials said the 2022 census achieved about 85 percent population coverage.

New Providence recorded the largest number of people with disabilities, with 26,712 residents, representing 69.3 percent of the national total. Grand Bahama recorded 4,862 people with disabilities, while Abaco recorded 1,584.

The highest proportions were recorded in Ragged Island, where 32.7 percent of residents, or 17 people, reported a disability. Inagua followed at 28 percent, or 217 people, and Mayaguana at 27.8 percent, or 54 people. Officials said those figures were likely influenced by the older populations on those islands.
Vision impairment was the most commonly reported disability. The census recorded 18,860 people who reported some difficulty seeing, 1,778 who reported a lot of difficulty and 419 who said they could not see at all.

Walking difficulties were the second most common category, with 10,419 people reporting some difficulty walking, 2,961 reporting a lot of difficulty and 1,102 saying they could not walk at all.

Remembering or concentrating was the third most common category, with 6,303 people reporting some difficulty, 1,387 reporting a lot of difficulty and 253 saying they could not remember or concentrate at all.

Speaking difficulties affected 3,690 people who reported some difficulty, 1,221 who reported a lot of difficulty and 490 who said they could not speak at all.

Older Bahamians were the most affected across the major disability domains. Among people aged 65 and older, 4,601 reported some difficulty seeing and 253 said they could not see at all. The same age group included 2,312 people with some difficulty hearing and 380 who said they could not hear at all.

Walking difficulties were also concentrated among seniors, with 4,558 people aged 65 and older reporting some difficulty and 452 saying they could not walk at all. Another 2,472 people aged 65 and older reported some difficulty remembering or concentrating, while 98 said they could not remember or concentrate at all.

The census found only modest differences in housing tenure between persons with and without disabilities. Nearly half of people with mild or higher disabilities fully owned their homes, at 47 percent, compared with 48.7 percent of people without disabilities.

People with disabilities rented at a rate of 29.1 percent, compared with 28.5 percent among those without disabilities. They lived rent-free at a rate of 3.8 percent, compared with 3.3 percent among people without disabilities. The data also showed that 0.8 percent of persons with disabilities were squatting, compared with 0.4 percent of persons without disabilities.

Mortgage-based homeownership was nearly identical, with 18 percent of persons with disabilities and 18.2 percent of persons without disabilities living in homes owned through a mortgage.

Among persons with disabilities aged five and older, 3,685 people, or 9.6 percent, were enrolled in school full-time, while 557 were enrolled part-time. The majority were not attending school at the time of the census.

The report also found that 206 children aged five to 14 with disabilities were not attending school.

Seventy-four children aged five to 17 represented 15.1 percent of people who reported being unable to speak at all.

Officials said the findings underscored the need for continued investment in inclusive education, accessibility and support services for children with communication-related disabilities.

Secondary education was the most commonly reported level of educational attainment among persons with disabilities aged 15 and older. Among people with a single disability, 15,878 had attained secondary education, followed by 5,494 college or university graduates and 2,097 people with post-secondary education.

Among those with multiple disabilities, 6,926 had attained secondary education, 1,307 had a college or university education and 648 had post-secondary qualifications.

The data also showed that educational attainment generally declined among older age groups, with people aged 80 and older recording the highest numbers of persons with only primary education and comparatively fewer people with college or university qualifications.

The census also found differences in marital status. Among people without disabilities, 218,120 people, or 67.5 percent, had never married, compared with 17,264 people, or 44.8 percent, among people with at least one disability.

Persons with disabilities were more likely to be married, with 13,071 people, or 33.9 percent, reporting married status, compared with 82,059 people, or 25.4 percent, among the non-disabled population.

The population with disabilities also recorded higher proportions of widowed, divorced and legally separated people.

Asked whether future census exercises could collect broader disability information, including employment and educational challenges, Managing Director Dr Jamiko Deleveaux said planning for the 2030 census would begin as early as next month.

“At that time, we do plan on working with the commission and we do plan on working with advocates for the disability community to get their assessment and for them to help us to tweak that disability section to make it much more robust and functional, so that we can get the most data that is the most impactful and the most helpful for the communities,” he said.

Disability Inclusion Consultant Erin Brown welcomed the report but said the country needs more detailed disability data than the Washington Group’s functionality-based approach provides.

“In the international conversation, because I work internationally, regionally, and nationally, that is one of the main conversations we have is about the Washington group questions,” she said.

“The fact that it supports the medical model of disability, which is prevent cure, whereas we're moving to the social, which is we identifying the barriers and removing those barriers or we are allowing persons access to self-identify with the varying disabilities that they live with so that you won't lose out.”

Ms Brown said advocates are pushing for a separate, more detailed national survey because the census does not capture key areas such as employment and labour participation among persons with disabilities.

“In our current environment, even when you are filling an application out, you're going in for the interviews, they're not populating that information,” she said. “Do I self-identify with a disability? If I do, what are those varying disabilities? We're not talking about reasonable accommodation, we're not talking about the persons with disabilities equal opportunity after 2014.”