Census data for your State Plan

A consumer count means nothing without a population to compare it with. The American Community Survey gives every state and county a count of people with a disability. Here is how to use it.

What the Census measures

The American Community Survey asks six questions about difficulty with hearing, vision, thinking, walking, self-care and independent living. Anyone who answers yes to one is counted as having a disability. Table B18101 gives the result for the civilian noninstitutionalized population by sex and age for every state and county; the subject table S1810 gives the same with disability type. The pages here use B18101 from the 2019–2023 ACS 5-year estimates, the most recent release with county detail for every county.

Two caveats travel with every number.

Penetration rate: the measure the field already uses

At least one state plan compares its network's consumers served with the Census count of people with disabilities, county by county, to compute a penetration rate, and ranks counties by it to choose where to put effort. The arithmetic is simple.

  1. Get consumers served by county from every center, for the same twelve months, on the same definition of a consumer (a signed consumer service record or waiver, not an information and referral contact).
  2. Take the county's civilian noninstitutionalized population with a disability from the table on your state's page.
  3. Divide, and show the result per 10,000 people so the numbers are readable. A county with 400 consumers and 20,000 people with a disability is 200 per 10,000.
  4. Repeat each year. The change is the metric; the level is context.

The same figure at state level is on every state page, computed from the public center reports. In report year 2023 the median state reached 44.9 per 10,000; the lowest quarter of states fell below 26.3 and the highest quarter exceeded 71.3.

Choosing a threshold

Some plans define a served county as one where the network reaches a fixed share of the disability population, for example 3% or 5%. No state has met those figures, so they describe a funding aspiration rather than measure performance, and a plan that reports zero served counties year after year has no way to show progress.

Two alternatives keep the measure honest and still let a plan show movement.

Whichever is chosen, keep the geographic definition of unserved and underserved that the plan already has. Penetration rate is a second lens, not a replacement, and it is the only one that can see under-reach inside a county that a center nominally covers.

When a county hides a community

Counties are the smallest geography the Census publishes with a reliable disability count everywhere. Some counties fold together communities that an Independent Living network treats separately: islands, a reservation and the towns around it, a city and its rural hinterland. Three ways to see inside a county:

Whatever is done, document the method and its margin of error on the plan's own page. A rough figure with its uncertainty stated is more useful than a precise-looking one without.

Your state

Each page below has the state's disability population by county and age, and draft indicator language with the state's own numbers filled in.

Civilian noninstitutionalized population with a disability by state, 2019–2023 ACS 5-year estimatesTerritories without a 5-year estimate are listed with a dash.
StatePopulationWith a disabilityRateCountiesNetwork reach per 10,000
Alabama4,969,866807,06916.2%678.5
Alaska704,13392,45113.1%30170.7
American Samoa—————
Arizona7,154,961970,40413.6%1529.9
Arkansas2,977,706528,99517.8%7545.6
California38,761,7384,364,43111.3%5872.2
Colorado5,713,803638,68611.2%6446.8
Connecticut3,555,703429,56812.1%943.8
Delaware992,298137,73813.9%330.4
District of Columbia663,01472,61111.0%197.0
Florida21,591,5882,924,17813.5%6752.7
Georgia10,627,5191,375,22412.9%15925.7
Guam—————
Hawaii1,386,108173,76612.5%518.6
Idaho1,866,785257,20413.8%4452.8
Illinois12,522,4981,482,93111.8%10256.0
Indiana6,714,911927,86213.8%9220.5
Iowa3,149,616390,43112.4%9922.8
Kansas2,875,799386,71613.4%105131.7
Kentucky4,429,333784,92017.7%1207.9
Louisiana4,523,071729,31616.1%6436.8
Maine1,359,807212,04315.6%16154.7
Maryland6,079,418690,46311.4%2437.5
Massachusetts6,926,890835,83212.1%14—
Michigan9,944,2981,414,43414.2%8373.1
Minnesota5,652,888642,87611.4%87—
Mississippi2,884,445500,68817.4%8232.7
Missouri6,062,789886,54314.6%11551.8
Montana1,088,176156,09314.3%56154.8
Nebraska1,937,542235,10612.1%9359.0
Nevada3,103,042416,36813.4%1727.4
New Hampshire1,371,503178,62313.0%1082.0
New Jersey9,174,408975,30810.6%2153.9
New Mexico2,077,871346,12216.7%3366.2
New York19,674,2462,394,96412.2%62156.9
North Carolina10,366,7041,386,50613.4%10010.1
North Dakota761,56989,75011.8%53255.8
Northern Mariana Islands—————
Ohio11,612,7841,646,04114.2%8838.7
Oklahoma3,906,785656,26416.8%7710.2
Oregon4,196,946635,79715.1%3614.8
Pennsylvania12,800,5351,820,61314.2%6732.3
Puerto Rico3,227,627734,98922.8%783.6
Rhode Island1,078,696146,64313.6%538.7
South Carolina5,113,158738,49514.4%4629.1
South Dakota879,723106,69812.1%66124.6
Tennessee6,888,1251,034,27515.0%9526.3
Texas29,157,9453,491,29812.0%25421.1
U.S. Virgin Islands—————
Utah3,304,468339,97910.3%29325.3
Vermont639,10992,62414.5%1471.3
Virginia8,429,1411,032,35312.2%13344.9
Washington7,623,2971,010,56313.3%3912.9
West Virginia1,750,730334,04419.1%5533.0
Wisconsin5,828,067701,77412.0%7261.5
Wyoming569,72379,38213.9%2361.6