Every July, Disability Pride Month celebrates disability identity and commemorates the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We at Social Explorer are highlighting multiple datasets that subscribers can use to make insights into the disability population around the country to help with analyses, ADA compliance, planning, and more.
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Data
The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program measures a wide range of health factors in almost every county in America. Social Explorer users can access the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps datasets for 2010 through 2025 in our data library.
A program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the dataset includes over 80 measures of health topics, conditions, and related issues. Of particular interest for Disability Pride Month, the latest available release includes "% Disability: Functional Limitations" (added in 2025). The data for this measurement come from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone survey conducted annually. Data obtained from the BRFSS are representative of each state’s total non-institutionalized population over 18 years of age.
In just a few clicks, the following map of 2025 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps data quickly shows the proportion of the disability population around the country.
Higher disability rates tend to cluster in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, parts of the rural South, and Native American reservation counties in the West and Plains. Lower rates are generally found in the Mountain West, Upper Midwest, and suburban metros.
The County Health Rankings and Reports dataset also includes confidence intervals to help users assess uncertainty, especially for sparsely populated county estimates. For an alternative version of the map with confidence intervals displayed, click here.
The wealth of health and socioeconomic measures in the dataset enable deeper examinations. Focusing on poverty and disability reveals one of the strongest county-level health relationships in the County Health Rankings dataset across the US.
Moving from the lowest to the highest poverty rate band, average functional disability rises by 17.1 percentage points, representing a nearly 67% relative increase. The jump from the 20–30% band to the 30–40% band (+3.5 pts) and from 30–40% to 40%+ (+3.1 pts) shows the relationship keeps climbing even at extreme poverty levels. The 60 counties with 40% plus child poverty rates average 42.6% functional disability — more than 10 points above the national county average of 32.6%.
Illustrating this kind of correlation can ground research and inform inquiries into how poverty and other factors contribute to functional limitations. Enhance your analysis with Social Explorer’s data resources on access to preventative care, nutrition, housing, employment, and more.
Centers for Disease Control PLACES Data
Social Explorer’s other datasets enable users to drill down into more details about disability prevalence and types. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) PLACES dataset breaks disability down into six distinct functional subtypes, all available at the county level (and also at census tract and ZCTA level). The CDC uses model-based small-area estimates derived from the BRFSS, the American Community Survey, and Census population data to create the dataset. Social Explorer has CDC PLACES datasets available from 2020 to 2025 in our library, including disability-related data from 2023 to 2025.
The following chart shows disability prevalence by subtype, as well as overall.
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The prevalence of adults with any disability averages 32.4% across counties, nearly one in three. Cognitive (16.6%) and Mobility (13.7%) are the two most prevalent subtypes by a wide margin. Self-Care (3.9%) is the least prevalent, representing the most severe functional limitation. (Please note that the six subtypes do not sum to "any disability" because individuals can have more than one type simultaneously.)
CDC PLACES provides both crude and age-adjusted rates. This additional calculation allows researchers to examine how much of a county's disability burden is explained by its older age structure versus other factors. For more information about the construction of the CDC PLACES dataset, please visit Social Explorer’s data documentation page for the survey.
American Community Survey Data
The breadth and depth of the American Community Survey (ACS) can further enrich disability analyses. Social Explorer has all ACS surveys from 2005 to the present, including all 5-year estimates. The ACS is the only data source that crosses disability data with age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, employment, poverty, or veteran status.
The following map combines veteran status and service-connected disability rate, showing a detailed picture of disability among veterans.
Additionally, the ACS is available down to the census tract and block group with survey-based estimates (not models) at those levels. For planners, policymakers, and advocates, ACS is also the official federal source used for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Medicaid planning, and workforce development.
Connect Detailed Disability-Related Data and Socioeconomic Factors with Social Explorer:
Social Explorer offers multiple paths into data and analysis on disabilities. For instance, you could use County Health Rankings and Roadmaps to identify which counties have elevated disability burdens, drill into CDC PLACES for tract-level age-adjusted patterns, and then use ACS to understand the demographic and socioeconomic profile of the affected population.
Subscribers can get started building in-depth analyses and community intelligence right now. New to Social Explorer? Sign up for a free Social Explorer account to try it out today.