Disability by nationality and immigration status

FOI reference: FOI-2025-2900

You asked

I am in need of data composition on people with disabilities across the UK. Please, can you help me with such data (or recommend the right department)?

• Nationality
• Immigrant type (legal and illegal)
  • Also consider: people in the UK on Student Visas, Work visas
• Groupings (Refugees, Asylum Seekers)

We said

Thank you for your freedom of information request regarding disability statistics.  

Unfortunately, we do not hold the information you have requested. 

We collected some information on disability during the 2021 Census (whether someone was Disabled under the Equality Act or Not disabled under the Equality Act). We produced the following publication related to this: Outcomes for disabled people in the UK: 2021. We did not collect immigration status during the 2021 Census, however we did collect country of birth and passport information. The associated download provides Disability status by country of birth and passport, which may be of interest to you. 

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) also produce statistics regarding disability, but this data is not disaggregated by immigration status or nationality.

The Home Office may be better placed to provide datasets combining disability status with immigration categories. They can be contacted at MigrationStatsEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk