Measuring disability in the general population using sample surveys and censuses

“Disability” is a popular survey topic in Britain because it is an area where the interests of central government departments, local government and advocacy groups for the disabled intersect. There is therefore a demand for trustworthy measures of the prevalence, the incidence, the nature and the severity of disabilities suffered by people living in the community, for use in censuses and surveys. Some major national surveys which include coverage of disability are shown in Table 1.