14% of Mid-Hudson Valley residents may be characterized as having a chronic health problem that is physical, emotional, or mental that limits the amount of work they are able to do at a job.
Senior citizens are more likely to have a disability than adult residents under the age of sixty-five. 29% of senior citizens report they have a chronic health condition that limits the amount of work they can do compared with just 11% of younger adult residents.
There are a few differences at the county level. About one in ten residents under the age of sixty-five has a disability. Sullivan County has the highest proportion of adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four with a disability at 15%, and Dutchess County has the smallest proportion at 8%. About one in ten residents under the age of sixty-five in the other five counties reports having a disability.
There is little difference in the proportion of senior citizens with a disability throughout the seven counties of the Mid-Hudson Valley.
People with a disability are twice as likely as Mid-Hudson Valley residents overall to live in households that earn less than $30,000 per year. While 25% of the region’s households are in this low income bracket 53% of people with disabilities live in households with annual earnings less than $30,000. In addition, 36% of people with disabilities struggled with at least one financial hardship this past year compared with about one-quarter of Mid-Hudson Valley households.
However, residents with a disability are statistically not any more or less likely to go without health insurance than Mid-Hudson Valley residents as a whole. 14% of residents with a disability lack health insurance whereas 12% of Mid-Hudson Valley households do not currently have health insurance.
