Disability Employment by State… South Dakota for the win?
Where you lives matters a lot. 61.4% of disabled people who live in South Dakota(#1) or 58.7% in Nebraska (#2) are employed compared to just 32.6% in Puerto Rico and(#52) 26.%4 in West Virginia (#51).
(for my fellow Californians, we sit 45.5% and #36 – below the national average of 46.8%)
Of course, no one has a “generic disability” and so not only is the disability employment data different by state, the 6 disability categories the US Census tracks have quite different results.
I did a deep dive into the employment data from Disability Statistics. This data is pulled from the US Census American Community Suvey data (their data set is from 2023).
!!!! I’m going to have to go to the source (gulp!) … it looks like the 2024 data is available and I can ask some different, deeper questions as it looks like you can get the raw survey information!… if any of you are into data, know the “R” programming language, or want to learn, let me know!
Which Disability
The 6 US Census disability areas have nothing to do with a medical model of disability or a social model of disability, they seem to map to a employee / employment functional model of disability.
People can qualify under multiple disability categories (I’m looking for a map that shows this…).
Overall in the US there are:
21,098,000 disabled people out of a total population of 187,855,900 people between 18 and 64.
- 4,092,100 Visually Impaired
- 3,982,400 Hearing Impaired
- 8,515,200 Ambulatory Disability
- 9,879,500 Cognitive Disability
- 3,220,100 Self-Care Disability
- 7,407,300 Independent Living
(NOTE – this is a community survey, not a pull from Social Security or other databases, so it is self-reported and the results are all estimates – this can have some impact for our discussion as some US states have pretty small populations overall, much less for different disability groups. For example, Wyoming has just 4800 people with Self Care Disabilities with an error rate of 12.2%)
Visually Impaired Disability Employment
Visually impaired adults make up 2.18% of the US working adult population. Employment for visually impaired adults ranges from 40.4% to 69.4%. Rhode Island is the top state for employment if you are visually impaired with a 69.9% employment rate (a high variance of 10% however). This is the only area that Rhode Island seems to be a leader. Given the high variance….one should do some more homework before moving there! The rest of the top 5 are South Dakota (of course), Iowa, Montana, and Utah. The bottom 5 are West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, and Kentucky in last.
Hearing Impaired Disability Employment
Hearing impaired adults make up 2.12% of the US working adult population. Employment for visually impaired adults ranges from 34.5% to 75.6%. South Dakota is the top state for employment if you are hearing impaired with a 69.9% employment rate (a high variance of 7.9% however). South Dakota is strong across the board (something that puzzles me – no offense to South Dakotans – insights welcome!). The rest of the top 5 are Nebraska, Utah, Montana, and Idaho. The bottom 5 are West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, with Puerto Rico in last.
Ambulatory Disability Employment
Adults with Ambulatory Disabilities make up 4.53% of the US working adult population (this is the second largest group). Employment for ambulatorily disabled (yrgh!) adults ranges from 21.3% to 39.1%. South Dakota is (once again) the top state for employment if you are have an ambulatory disability with a 39.1% employment rate (again with a high variance of 7.1% however). The rest of the top 5 are Nevada, Delaware, Maryland, and Colorado. The bottom 5 are Louisiana, Alabama, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and in a surprise Maine in last.
Cognitive Disability Employment
Adults with Cognitive Disabilities make up 5.26% of the US working adult population (this is the largest group). Employment for cogntivily(?) disabled (yrgh!) adults ranges from 21.3% to 57.1%. South Dakota is (shocker – once again) the top state for employment if you are have an ambulatory disability with a 57.1% employment rate (again with a high variance of 6.3% however). The rest of the top 5 are District of Columbia, Utan, Colorado, and Nebraska. The bottom 5 are New York, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, and Puerto Rico in last.
Self-Care Disability Employment
Adults with Self-Care Disabilities make up 1.71% of the US working adult population. This is the population with the lowest overall employment rate. Employment for adults with self-care disabilities range from 7.81% (this is a super small sample – Vermont with a 6.51% variance and a sample size of 48!) to 33.33%. Montana is the top state for employment if you are have an a self-care disability with a 33.33% employment rate (again with a high variance of 9.51% however). The rest of the top 5 are South Dakota, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The bottom 5 are New York, Kentucky, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Vermont in last.
Independent Living Disability Employment
Adults with Independent Living Disabilities make up 3.94% of the US working adult population. Employment for adults with independent living disabilities range from 10.58% in Puerto Rico (there is a big jump to 17.59 in Alabama) to 41.3%. Colorado is the top state for employment if you are have an a independent living disability with a 41.3% employment rate. The rest of the top 5 are South Dakota, Kansas, Delaware. The bottom 5 are New York, Vermont, Mississippi, Alabama, and Puerto Rico in last.
South Dakota – the Clear US Leader for Disability Employment
This may be on me, but I was quite surprised by South Dakota’s strong showing across the board for disability employment. It is number 1 for Hearing, Ambulatory, and Cognitive disabilities, and number 2 for Visual, Self-Care, and Independent Living. More research is needed. No one else is close.
The next two states are Colorado and Utah – also, no one else is close.
The US hates Puerto Rico and its disability employment numbers are no exception
Elsewhere in my research, I found out that the US excludes Puerto Rico from the SSI program … because non-disabled people don’t pay income taxes as it is a territory. Puerto Rico has the highest poverty rate by a long shot (at least the last time I looked – foreshadowing…). While circumstances and some choices may have roles in other states, but US policy towards Puerto Rico is pretty devastating for its disabled people (and I’m sure other groups as well).
… and California and Disability Employment – nothing to be impressed by
California sits tied at 33rd with Vermont. It’s best disability employment area is for those with Ambulatory Disabilities (#27) and worst for those with Cognitive Disabilties (#41).
I’ve completed this analysis for all of the states (plus DC and Puerto Rico)… in the long term, I’d like to pull it together into a report, but I need to add “some skills” (R programming and automated report writing) into the mix.
However, shoot me a note through Disability Almanac if you would like your state’s data.
Next Steps
As I noted, I need to improve my R programming skills (OK, actually develop some R programming skills) and figure out how to work directly with the Census ACS data.
In the meantime, I’m going to use the Disability Statistics data… probably next up, Poverty Rates.
If there are topics you’d like me to dig into sooner… let me know. There are so many questions to answer that your interest may spur my action :) !
Putting out a report card that grades states may help get some visibility to how much better is possible. The ranges between states and between disabilities are pretty jaw dropping.
