Romania had almost 780,000 people with disabilities at the end of September last year, with more than a third of them (36.5%) affected by severe disabilities.

The large majority of them (97.8%) lived with their families or independently, whereas almost 18,000 people with disabilities were institutionalized and lived in public residential institutions run by the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and Elderly People, reports local Agerpres. The Ministry runs the residential institutions for adults with disabilities through the National Agency for People with Disabilities.

In total, about 3.5% of Romania’s population had a disability at the end of September last year, according to data from the Labor Ministry. Bucharest had almost 62,500 people with disabilities, followed by Prahova county, with over 37,000.

The types of disabilities that are recognized by the state include: physical, visual, hearing, somatic, mental, psychic disabilities, HIV / AIDS, and associated rare diseases.

People over 50 represented 70% of the total number of adults with disabilities.

editor@romania-insider.com