Census 2021: nearly a quarter of people living with disabilities in Ashfield
Nearly a quarter of people in Ashfield are living with a disability, census data shows.
The Equality Act defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a “substantial and long-term adverse effect” on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Figures from the latest census of England and Wales show 27,809 people in Ashfield said they had such an impairment as of March 2021, 22 per cent of the area's population.
Of these people, 14,997, 11.9 per cent, said their disability stopped them from carrying out regular activities “a little”, while 12,812, 10.2 per cent, said it did so “a lot”.
The overall proportion of disabled people is down from 2011, when 24.1 per cent said they had a disability.
Across England and Wales, the proportion of people with a disability has fallen from 19.5 per cent in 2011 to 17.8 per cent at the last census, despite the number of disabled people increasing from 10 million to 10.4m.
The ONS warned the wording of the question was different in each census, with 2021 being the first to use the 2010 Equality Act definition of disability and to explicitly mention mental impairments.
Jon Wroth-Smith, Census 2021 director, said the “unique circumstances of the pandemic may have influenced the results”.
The latest census data also shows a quarter of households have at least one disabled member.
In Ashfield, there were 16,040 such households – including 4,954 with two or more disabled people.
Disability equality charity Scope said it was “high time” society was more inclusive of those with disabilities.
Craig Moss, Scope research manager, said: “Disabled people are repeatedly forgotten by government, business and society. Workplaces, pubs and public transport aren’t accessible.”
The census also shows an improvement in the health of the population.
More people said their general health was “very good”, at 47.5 per cent, compared with 45 per cent in 2011, while the proportion saying it was “very bad” dropped from 1.4 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
As of March 2021, 42.2 per cent of Ashfield residents described their health as “very good”, up from 40.4 per cent in 2011, while the proportion of people describing it as “very bad”' stayed at 1.6 per cent.