There have been several surveys on the prevalence of people with disabilities over the past thirty years in Nepal, which have produced a wide variety of figures ranging from less than 1% to over 5%. A disability survey in the district of Kanchanpur in 1995 estimated that 5.04% of the population was disabled. The most recent census taken in 2001 placed the prevalence rate at only 0.46% of the total population. According to the census approximately 39% of those disabled were physically disabled.
There was a National Sample Survey conducted in 1980 that estimated the national population of the disabled at 3.0%, however a copy of this survey was not made readily available for inclusion in this report.
| Type fo Disability | Male | % | Female | % | Total | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Disability | 19,797 | 42.0 | 21,001 | 37.1 | 40,798 | 39.3 |
| Blindness | 5,483 | 11.6 | 11,043 | 19.5 | 16,526 | 15.9 |
| Deafness | 11,948 | 25.3 | 13,592 | 24.0 | 25,540 | 24.6 |
| Mentally Retarded | 6,479 | 13.7 | 6,692 | 11.8 | 13,171 | 12.7 |
| Multiple Disability | 3,455 | 7.3 | 4,305 | 7.6 | 7,760 | 7.5 |
| Total | 47,162 | 100.0 | 56,633 | 100.0 | 103,795 | 100.0 |
| Gender Mix | − | 45.4 | − | 54.6 | − | − |
| Total Population | 11,359,378 | 49.96 | 11,377,556 | 50.04 | 22,736,934 | 100.0 |
| Prevalence Rate | − | 0.42 | − | 0.50 | − | 0.46 |
Source: National Planning Commission and Central Bureau onf Statistics
