Disability Statistics

Disability Statistics

Millions of working Americans face a growing crisis: a lack of adequate disability insurance coverage.

The disability statistics are concerning. The absence of emergency savings, rising medical costs, and an overall trend of fewer employers offering benefits to workers has created a critical blind spot for many American workers and their families. Without some income protection, more Americans are experiencing severe financial difficulty if they need to miss work due to illness, injury, or pregnancy.

A lack of adequate disability coverage.

  • At least 51 million working adults in the United States are without disability insurance other than the basic coverage available through Social Security1.
  • Nearly 4 out of 10 American adults indicate they can’t pay an unexpected $400 bill without having to carry a balance on their credit card or borrow money from friends, family, or the bank2.

Chances of missing work due to illness, injury, or pregnancy are greater than most realize.

  • Just under one in four of today’s 20-year-olds can expect to be out of work for at least a year because of a disabling condition before they reach the normal retirement age.3
  • Prior to the pandemic, around 5% of working Americans experienced a short-term disability (six months or less) due to illness, injury, or pregnancy.4 Almost all short-term disability plans involve non-occupational coverage. 5

The most common reasons for short-term disability claims are6:

  1. Pregnancies (22%) 

  2. Musculoskeletal disorders affecting the back and spine, knees, hips, shoulders, and other parts of the body (17%)
  3. Injuries such as fractures, sprains, and strains of muscles and ligaments (11%)
  4. Mental health issues including depression and anxiety (10%)

  5. Digestive disorders, such as hernias and gastritis (7%)

The most common reasons for long-term disability claims are7:

  1. Musculoskeletal disorders (26%)
  2. Cancer (15%)
  3. Injuries such as fractures, sprains, and strains of muscles and ligaments (11%)
  4. Mental health issues (9%)
  5. Circulatory (heart attack, stroke) (9%)

The consequences are alarming.

  • A large study of consumer bankruptcy filings found that 77.8% of debtors cited income loss as a contributor to their bankruptcy. This included 44.3% specifically citing medically-related work loss as a contributor.8
  • A large-scale study linking cancer registry data and bankruptcy filings in Washington State found that cancer patients were 71% more likely to experience a severe adverse financial event and 28% more likely to have past-due credit card payments than those without cancer.9

Workers’ Compensation and Social Security do not cover most of these challenges.

  • Workers’ Compensation only covers time away from work if the disabling illness or injury was directly work-related. In 2024, less than 1.0 percent of American workers missed work because of an occupational illness or injury.10
  • From 2014 to 2023, only 30 percent of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claimants had their applications approved: around 20 percent at the initial application stage and the remainder after a reconsideration or appeals process.11
  • It generally takes three to five months from time of application for SSDI benefits to get an initial decision.12
  • As of February 2026, there were over 340,000 pending SSDI appeals hearings, with an average processing time of almost 9 months.13
  • “The average SSDI benefit for a disabled worker as of February 2026 is approximately $1,630 a month.14
  • That equates to $19,560 annually–which is below the poverty guideline of $21,640 for a two-person household.15
  1. According to ACLI analysis of 2022 U.S. Census data and Strategic Business Insights 2020 MacroMonitor Household Survey, 53.7% of non-retired households (51.2 million in total) did not report having disability insurance. Assuming there is at least one adult in each household, this means the number of “uncovered” adults is at least equal to the number of “uncovered” households. (Source: Andrew Melnyk, Chief Economist, ACLI. https://impact.acli.com/author/andrewmelnyk/).
  2. Federal Reserve, Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024, May 2025. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2024-savings-and-investments.htm.
  3. Social Security Administration, Disability and Death Probability Tables for Insured Workers Who Attain Age 20 in 2025. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/ran6/an2025-6.pdf Table A, Column 1 (Probability of Disability Before NRA).
  4. Integrated Benefits Institute, IBI Benchmarking Analytics Series: Which Diagnoses Drive STD Incidence, Costs and Lost Time? https://www.ibiweb.org/resources/ibi-benchmarking-analytics-which-diagnoses-drive-std-incidence-costs-and-lost-time. During the pandemic (2020-22), there was a 57% increase in the rate of health-related absences from work compared to the five-year period ending in 2019, and in 2023 absence rates had yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. (Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/health-related-work-absence-2023-we-entering-new-era-fred-schott-i2f2e/)
  5. State-run short-term disability plans are all non-occupational. As for private plans, AskGMS (a group benefits market research firm) reports that 96% of in-force group short-term disability plans provide coverage for non-occupational disabilities only. https://www.askgms.com/disability-and-life-insurance.html
  6. Integrated Benefits Institute, Health and Productivity Benchmarking 2024 (released 4Q 2025), Short-Term Disability, All Employers. Condition-specific results. See https://www.ibiweb.org/tools-analysis/benchmarking.
  7. Integrated Benefits Institute, Health and Productivity Benchmarking 2024 (released 4Q 2025), Long-Term Disability, All Employers. Condition-specific results. Seehttps://www.ibiweb.org/tools-analysis/benchmarking
  8. David U. Himmelstein, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Steffie Woolhandler, “Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act,” American Journal of Public Health 109, no. 3 (March 1, 2019): pp. 431 – 433. See Table 1. Free access available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6366487/
  9. Veena Shankaran et al. Risk of Adverse Financial Events in Patients With Cancer: Evidence From a Novel Linkage Between Cancer Registry and Credit Records. Journal of Clinical Oncology 40, 884-891(2022).  https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.21.01636 
  10. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (Annual) 2024, Table 1.  https://www.bls.gov/web/osh/table-1-industry-rates-national.htm. Retrieved 3/30/26.
  11. Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2024 (released October 2025). https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2024/sect04.html#chart11
  12. Social Security Administration, Factsheet https://www.ssa.gov/disability/Documents/Factsheet-AD.pdf
  13. https://www.ssa.gov/ssa-performance, “Hearings pending and average processing time.”
  14. Social Security Administration, Monthly Statistical Snapshot, February 2026. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/
  15. HHS Poverty Guidelines for 2026. https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines (effective January 13, 2026).