(L-R) Jean Ries, Family Affairs Ministry; Nadine Müller, Family Affairs Ministry; Myriam Zimmer, Family Affairs Ministry; Max Hahn, Minister for Family Affairs; Dr Serge Allegrezza, Statec Director; François Peltier, Statec; Jérôme Hury, Statec; Credit: MFSVA

On Friday 8 March 2024, Max Hahn, Luxembourg's Minister for Family Affairs, Solidarity, Living Together and Reception of Refugees, together with Dr Serge Allegrezza, Director of Statec, presented data on people with disabilities.

"To enable everyone to live an inclusive life and play an active part in our society, Luxembourg is committed to various inclusion projects, including accessible buildings, accessible elections, accessible communication and the introduction of silent hours in various shops. And we will continue to work towards inclusion with the people concerned and their families", Minister Hahn emphasised at the press conference.

"The 2021 population census addressed the issue of disability for the first time, on the initiative of the Ministry," explained Dr Serge Allegrezza. The census is also considered the best way of analysing phenomena that are not common.

Key figures

The census provides unprecedented information on the population concerned. The following figures and conclusions have emerged:

  • nearly 15% of the population of Luxembourg is disabled: 14% of men and 15.2% of women are disabled;
  • disabilities in the categories of vision (8.7%), mobility (3.9%) and hearing (2.5%) are the most common types of disability (8.7%);
  • the prevalence of disability increases with age: it is well over 50% among people over the age of 85;
  • nearly 7% of the population, or almost half the people concerned, consider their disability to be moderate (4%) or severe (2.9%);
  • people with disabilities have a lower level of education;
  • the employment rate among disabled people is relatively low: 57.1% of disabled people aged between 20 and 64 say they have a job. Nevertheless, the employment rate among these people is well below the rate observed for the population, which according to Eurostat was 74.1% in 2021;
  • people with disabilities are under-represented in the finance and insurance sector (5.5% compared with 10.3% for the rest of the population).

All the census figures are available in a dedicated section on the statistics portal: https://statistiques.public.lu/fr/recensement.html.