Disability

Exploring statistics on disability and social participation

Published

1 month ago

February 4, 2025

In 2022, the share of people aged 16 years or over who reported having participated in formal volunteering (formal voluntary activities through an organization or formal group to help people, the environment, animals etc) in the EU was 10.3% for people with a disability and 13.0% for those without. Regarding informal volunteering (as helping other people doing their cooking, walking their dog, or shopping for them), the share varied between 13.3% for people with a disability and 14.7% for those without a disability.

When looking at active citizenship, which refers to the participation in political or community activities (activities in a political party, local interest group, public consultation, protesting), those shares are at 7.4% for people with a disability and 8.4% for those without.

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Source dataset: ilc_scp39

People aged 16-44 with a disability had higher participation rates than their counterparts without a disability: 14.8% vs 12.8% for formal volunteering, 19.5% vs 14.7% for informal volunteering and 12.4% vs 8.5% for active citizenship.

On the other hand, for people aged 65 or over, participation rates were considerably lower for those with a disability. For example, the share in formal volunteering was 7.7% for people with a disability vs 13.5% for those without, and in informal volunteering, it was 8.9% vs 14.5%.