Veterans with disabilities: Key findings from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability
Released: 2024-11-06
Many Canadian Veterans have disabilities that can affect different areas of their lives, including health, well-being, social interactions and employment. In 2022, almost half (46%) of Canadian Veterans had at least one disability, compared with 27% of non-Veterans.
In recognition of Veterans' Week, Statistics Canada is releasing a new infographic, "A Snapshot of Canadian Veterans with Disabilities, 2022," based on the results from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability. The infographic presents data on Canadian Veterans with disabilities by age group, type of disability and cause of main condition, as well as on whether they had unmet needs for assistive aids, devices or technologies and had received disability benefits.
Nearly half of Canadian Veterans have at least one disability
In 2022, across all age groups, a higher proportion of Canadian Veterans had a disability compared with non-Veterans. Among Veterans aged 17 to 44 years, 32% had a disability, compared with 20% of non-Veterans in that age group. This gap widens in older age groups, as 43% of Veterans aged 45 to 64 years and 55% of those aged 65 years and older had a disability, compared with 27% of non-Veterans aged 45 to 64 years and 40% of non-Veterans aged 65 years and older.
Pain-related, physical and sensory disabilities are the most common
Among Veterans with a disability, 72% had a pain-related disability, 66% had a physical disability and 51% had a sensory disability. Additionally, 23% of Veterans had a mental health-related disability and 29% had a cognitive disability. In some cases, persons with disabilities may require the use of assistive aids, devices or technologies to help with their daily activities. Just over one-quarter (26%) of Veterans with a disability had at least one unmet need for such aids or devices, compared with 23% of non-Veterans with a disability.
Among 4 in 10 Veterans with a disability, the cause of their main condition is work-related
Among Veterans with a disability, 40% indicated that the cause of their main condition was work-related, compared with 17% of non-Veterans with a disability. The most common work-related causes for Veterans include accidents or injuries (48%), stress or trauma (39%) and exposure to loud noises (23%), with these rates being higher than those among non-Veterans (38%, 32% and 8%, respectively).
Over 1 in 4 Veterans with a disability receive some form of disability benefit
In 2022, 26% of Veterans with a disability received some form of disability benefit, compared with 12% of non-Veterans with a disability. Of those Veterans, 65% received a disability benefit from Veterans Affairs Canada.
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Note to readers
The Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) sample is selected from the Census of Population respondents, making this survey a postcensal one. For methodological details, see Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD).
A person is defined as having a physical disability if they had a mobility, dexterity or flexibility disability.
A person is defined as having a sensory disability if they had a seeing or hearing disability.
A person is defined as having a cognitive disability if they had a learning, developmental or memory disability.
For "work-related causes," it is not possible to determine whether the job in which the Veteran developed their main condition refers to their military service or to a job they may have held before or after this service, as this information is not collected in the Canadian Survey on Disability.
Products
The infographics "Snapshot of Canadian Veterans with Disabilities, 2022," "Pain-related disabilities, 2022," are now available in the series Statistics Canada – Infographics (11-627-M).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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