Rate of persons with disabilities in Romanian population reaches 3.95%, as of March 31, 2022

The total number of persons with disabilities was 867,474 at the end of March 2022, the rate of persons with disabilities in the Romanian population being 3.95%, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MMSS).

Of these, 98.09% (850,942 persons) were in the care of families and/or lived independently (non-institutionalized) and 1.91% (16,532 persons) were in the residential public institutions of social assistance for adults with disabilities (institutionalized) coordinated by MMSS through the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPDPD).

By county/municipalities, the largest number of people with disabilities was registered in Bucharest (73,652 persons) followed by the counties of Prahova (38,151 persons) and Arges (32,100 persons), and the lowest number was registered in Covasna County (6,461 persons).

According to Law no. 448/2006 on the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities, republished, the types of disabilities are: physical, visual, auditory, deafblind, somatic, mental, psychic, HIV/AIDS, associate, rare diseases.

The number of persons over the age of 50 represented 72.77% of all adults with disabilities. From the centralization of data by age groups, it resulted that 52.74% were persons between 18-64 years old (415,675 persons) and 47.26% were over 65 years old (372,416 people).

According to Law no. 448/2006 on the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities, republished, the degrees of disability are: serious, accentuated, medium and light.

The number of people with severe disabilities represented 40.45% of the total (compared to 40.07% as of March 31, 2021), those with accentuated disabilities 47.23% (compared to 48.08% as of March 31, 2021) and those with medium and light disabilities 12.32% (compared to 11.85% at March 31, 2021).

The number of public social assistance institutions for adults with disabilities as of March 31, 2022 was 539 (compared to 510 on March 31, 2021), of which 484 were residential (compared to 455 on March 31, 2021) and 55 non-residential - daily (compared to 55 to March 31, 2021).

According to MMSS data, over four fifths (86.15%) of the public residential institutions for adults with disabilities were: care and assistance centers (37.81%), with 7,531 beneficiaries, sheltered housing (31.40%), with 1,052 beneficiaries and habilitation and rehabilitation centers (16.94%) with 2,877 beneficiaries. They accounted for 69.32% of the total number of 16,532 people in residential institutions.

A significant number of beneficiaries were also in the 34 neuropsychiatric recovery and rehabilitation centers, respectively 3,557 people (21.52%).

Of the 484 residential public institutions of social assistance for adults with disabilities, 68 were centers with over 50 beneficiaries (6,955). These centers are in the process of restructuring, MMSS says.AGERPRES