The report “Persons with Disabilities in Portugal – Human Rights Indicators 2023” (7th edition), published by the Disability and Human Rights Observatory (ODDH-ISCSP), reveals overall improvements in access to employment for persons with disabilities (although registered unemployment continues to rise, particularly among women with disabilities). However, the same report highlights an increased vulnerability of this group to poverty and social exclusion.
As in previous editions, this year’s report compiles and analyzes indicators across four distinct areas: discrimination and access to justice, education, work and employment, social protection, and living conditions. Below are some of the main findings.
Work and Employment
In the area of work and employment, overall improvements are observed, although women with disabilities face greater difficulties. In fact, in Portugal, between 2015 and 2020, the employment rate among the population with disabilities increased more (+7,6 percentage points) than among the population without disabilities (+5,4 percentage points). Similarly, the indicator employment gap between persons with and without disabilities has also decreased in recent years: -6,8 percentage points in 2022 compared to 2015. This result may be explained by the sharp decline in employment observed in the general population during and after the pandemic — which has only slowly recovered — as well as by the effect of certain public policies adopted to protect the particular vulnerability of persons with disabilities in the context of the pandemic and economic crisis.
There is also an overall, although modest, positive trend in the number of job placements for persons with disabilities registered as unemployed with the IEFP (Institute for Employment and Vocational Training), with a 4,6% increase in this indicator between 2015 and 2022. This result may reflect the effect of the private sector quota law (Law no. 4/2019), as this legislation established a four-year transition period (ending in January 2023) for large companies (with more than 100 employees) to reach a 2% quota in hiring workers with disabilities. Therefore, it will be important to monitor the evolution of this indicator in the coming years.
However, regarding the unemployment rate among persons with disabilities, the situation is reversed: in Portugal, over the period considered (2015–2020), data from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (ICOR) show that this rate decreased less (-3,8 percentage points) than that of the population without disabilities (-4,8 percentage points). Complementarily, the analysis of registered unemployment (which includes individuals officially registered as unemployed with the IEFP) from 2015 to 2022 reveals a 4,6% increase in the number of persons with disabilities registered as unemployed at Employment Centers. This is mainly due to a significant increase in registered unemployment among women with disabilities (+23,8%). In short, while employment is rising, unemployment among the population with disabilities is also increasing — especially among women. This may partly be due to the growing number of women with disabilities available to work (among persons with disabilities, the activity rate for women rose by +7,8 percentage points during this period, while the rate for men rose by only +4,1 percentage points), but it may also indicate additional barriers faced by women with disabilities in accessing the labor market.
Private and Public Sector
Data on the professional integration of persons with disabilities in the private sector show that, in 2021, persons with disabilities employed in companies with more than 10 employees represented only 0,65% (n = 15 317) of the total workforce in these companies (N = 2 373 619). Still, this figure reflects a 50% increase compared to 2015 and a 10,2% increase compared to 2020.
The vast majority (67,4%) of these workers were over 45 years old, and only 10,4% were aged 34 or younger. However, for the first time in 2021, the most significant year-over-year growth was recorded among workers aged 18 to 34 (+278 workers, or a 21,4% increase), followed by those aged 45 to 64 (+10,8%; +952 workers).
The prevalence of workers with disabilities in public administration has also been consistently increasing since 2015 (+54.8% between 2015 and 2022), reaching 3% in 2022.
Social Protection and Living Conditions
In the area of social protection and living conditions, however, the results are less favorable. Data from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions regarding the risk of poverty, analyzed in the report, show that nearly two-thirds (62,3%) of persons with disabilities aged over 16 were at risk of poverty before social transfers in 2022, compared to only 35,5% of persons without disabilities — representing a disparity of 26,8 percentage points between the two groups.
The available data also highlight the more significant impact of social support in mitigating poverty among the population with disabilities: in 2022, for example, the poverty rate dropped by 42,3 percentage points after social transfers for persons with disabilities, but only by 21,5 percentage points for the population without disabilities. These results underscore the vital role of social benefits in reducing poverty among persons with disabilities in Portugal, suggesting limited access to alternative sources of income for this group in the country.
Throughout the period analyzed in this report (2015–2022), the ‘poverty risk rate for persons with disabilities aged 16 or older after social transfers’ registered only a slight decrease of 2 p.p. Furthermore, the disparity between persons with and without disabilities remained virtually unchanged over the entire period — in 2022, this gap was still 6 p.p.
Finally, Eurostat data from 2022 highlight that in Portugal, almost 1 in 3 households (29,7%) with persons with disabilities (aged over 16) report having “difficulty” or “great difficulty” in meeting their usual expenses. In contrast, only 20,1% (1 in 5) of households without persons with disabilities face such challenges. Households with persons with severe disabilities are the most likely to report these difficulties (38,2%). Between 2015 and 2020, despite a notable improvement in this indicator across all groups, the disparities between groups remained largely unchanged throughout the period analyzed. These results underscore the structural economic vulnerability to which persons with disabilities and their households continue to be exposed, even in a context where employability indicators are improving for this segment of the portuguese population.
Education
In the field of education, it was found that early school dropout is more frequent among students with disabilities. The indicator ‘early school dropout rate’ shows that, in Portugal, in 2020, the dropout rate for students with disabilities aged between 18 and 24 was 22,1%, that is, 13,6 p.p. higher than for students without disabilities in the same age group. When comparing these data with those recorded in 2015, it is observed that the disparity between the dropout rates of young people with and without disabilities in Portugal has been increasing, both in the age group between 18 and 24 years and in the group from 18 to 29 years, thus contributing to a worsening gap between the population with and without disabilities.
Regarding higher education, the information provided by the Survey of Higher Education Institutions and their Organizational Units (2022/2023), carried out by the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), reveals, as in previous years, a positive trend, recording a 35% increase in the number of students with disabilities in higher education (N = 3753) in Portugal in the 2022/2023 academic year compared to the 2021/2022 academic year (N = 2779), and a very significant growth of 128% compared to 2017/2018.