Disability and Poverty in Developing Countries: A Multidimensional Study

About 15% of the world population lives with some form of disability. Yet little is known about the economic lives of persons with disabilities, especially in developing countries. This paper uses for the first time internationally comparable data to draw an economic profile of persons with disabilities in 15 developing countries. In most countries, disability is found to be significantly associated with higher multidimensional poverty as well as lower educational attainment, lower employment rates, and higher medical expenditures. Among persons with disabilities, persons aged 40 and above and persons with multiple disabilities were more likely to be multi-dimensionally poor.