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Total number of persons with disabilities in Singapore

Type: Parliamentary Questions

Topic(s): Disability Services

Published on 19 November 2018

19 November 2018

Question

Ms Yip Pin Xiu
Nominated Member of Parliament

To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the current total number of people with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and those who are blind or deaf in Singapore; and (b) whether there has been consideration to share the particulars of this group of people, while maintaining a high level of privacy, to VWOs or organisations that can help with outreach and provide support to this targeted group of people.

Answer

1 The prevalence rate of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in Singapore is as follows

POPULATION GROUP

APPROXIMATE PREVALENCE RATE

Student population

2.1% of student populationa

18–49 years

3.4% of resident populationb

50 years and above

13.3% of resident populationc

 

2 Persons with sensory (blindness and deafness) and physical disabilities constitute half of the disability group. The other half comprises those with Intellectual Disabilities, Autistic Spectrum Disorder and other types of disabilitiesd.

3 As part of efforts to better support PwDs, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is working with the Department of Statistics (DOS) to include disability-related questions in the upcoming population census to be conducted in 2020. Data collected from the census will enable government agencies to better plan services and programmes for different groups of PwDs.

4 On the issue of data sharing, we will look into sharing appropriate data with voluntary welfare organisations and other help organisations when the census data is available. However, sharing of personal information with non-governmental organisations will require consent, so as to protect the privacy of individuals.

aSource Ministry of Education. This is based on the number of reported cases of students with sensory impairment, physical impairment, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. The total student population is put at approximately 460,000.

bSource National Council of Social Service. Based on a random sampling of 2,000 Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged 18 and above done by NCSS in 2015, the self-reported disability prevalence rate was 3.4% for those aged 18–49 years old. This includes those who acquired disabilities due to accidents and illness. The resident population is put at approximately 3.9 million.

cSource National Council of Social Service. Based on a random sampling of 2,000 Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged 18 and above done by NCSS in 2015, the self-reported disability prevalence rate was 13.3% for those aged 50 years and above. This includes those who acquired disabilities due to accidents, illness and old age. The resident population is put at approximately 3.9 million.

dEstimated based on the profile of the persons with disabilities who are served under SG Enable's administered schemes and services (Sep 2016).