Key disability employment data for the UK and EU — employment rates, pay gaps, underemployment, sector distribution, and trends. Essential reference for employers building business cases for inclusion programmes.

Disability Employment Statistics: UK and Europe (2023/24)

United Kingdom

Employment Rate

Disability employment gap: 29.2 percentage points (82.0% non-disabled vs. 52.8% disabled, ONS Labour Force Survey Q3 2023)
The gap has narrowed from 34 points in 2013 but progress has stalled since 2020
Government target: close the gap by 1 million people by 2027 (Improving Lives, 2017)

Workforce Composition

7.7 million working-age disabled people in the UK (22% of working-age population)
4.3 million disabled people in employment
3.4 million disabled people who want to work but are not employed

Pay

17.2% median disability pay gap (disabled vs. non-disabled, ONS 2023)
Disabled women face a combined gap of approximately 36%
Disabled people are 2x more likely to be in the lowest earnings quintile

Sector Distribution

Over-represented: Social care, retail, hospitality, public administration

Under-represented: Financial services, technology, professional services, senior management

Country	Disabled	Non-disabled	Gap
Sweden	62.4%	82.1%	19.7pp
Germany	59.1%	79.4%	20.3pp
Netherlands	54.2%	82.5%	28.3pp
France	44.8%	73.9%	29.1pp
Italy	31.2%	66.7%	35.5pp
Poland	33.6%	75.2%	41.6pp

Stat	Source	Year
Companies with disability inclusion programmes see 28% higher revenue	Accenture	2018
Diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time	Cloverpop	2017
ROI on mental health support: £5.30 per £1 spent	Deloitte/Mind	2022
Disabled employees have 8% lower turnover than non-disabled peers	DWP/RAND	2020
Reasonable adjustments cost £0 for 57% of disabled employees	CIPD	2022
US companies scoring 80+ on DEI earn 1.6x more revenue per employee	Disability:IN/Accenture	2023

Disability Employment Statistics: UK and Europe (2023/24)

Disability Employment Statistics: UK and Europe (2023/24)

United Kingdom

Employment Rate

Workforce Composition

Pay

Sector Distribution

Underemployment

European Union

Employment Rate

Country Variation (employment gap, disabled vs. non-disabled)

EU Disability Strategy 2021–2030

Norway (Reference Market for InkludX)

Business Case Data Points

Data Sources

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