Disabled young people

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines a disabled person as someone who "has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".

It is difficult to be certain about the number of disabled young people in Britain, as there is a range of different statistics. The most authoritative information still comes from a survey carried out by the Office for Population, Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) in 1985, which found that around 3% of children in Britain were disabled.

(Source: Working with Children 2006-7, NCH/SocietyGuardian, 2005)

In 2000, Government research estimated that there were nearly 400,000 disabled children under the age of 16. This accounts for approximately one in 38 of all children in the population.

(Source: Quality Protects: Disabled Children, Numbers and Categories, Department of Health, 2000)

In 2000, 19% of boys and 17% of girls under the age of 20 reported having a mild disability, with asthma being the most common condition.

(Source: National Statistics, General Household Surveys 1990-96, 1998, 2000)