Altogether 12.7 per cent of the population aged 16 or over experienced severe activity limitations in 2025

release | Statistics on living conditions 2025

Change

The disability data in database tables 13y2 and 13ya were revised on 26 March 2026.
Read more about the change

According to Statistics Finland, 12.7 per cent of all persons aged 16 or over belonging to the household population were persons with disabilities in 2025. There were around 591,000 persons with disabilities. The share of persons with disabilities, that is, people who had experienced severe activity limitations, was roughly the same as in the previous survey in 2022. The limitations experienced by elderly people decreased, while those experienced by people under the age of 50 became more common.

Key selections

  • Activity limitations became slightly more common among people under the age of 50 and decreased among elderly people in 2025 compared with 2022.
  • Among younger people, severe activity limitations are particularly related to remembering or concentrating, while among the elderly they are mainly related to walking or climbing steps.
  • Young people with activity limitations assess their health as being good more often than elderly people. However, the risk of poverty or social exclusion experienced by young people with activity limitations has increased clearly.
  • Activity limitations are measured with an indicator consisting of six basic activities: seeing, hearing, walking and climbing steps, remembering and concentrating, self-care and communicating in one's own native language.
  • When a person experiences a lot of difficulties in any of the six basic activities or cannot do the activity at all, that is, the person experiences severe limitations, the person is considered to have disability.

Database tables

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Updated database tables
Classifications used:
  • Income group
  • Health care expenditure
  • Burden of costs
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:
Classifications used:
  • Household's life-cycle
  • Health care expenditure
  • Burden of costs
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:
Classifications used:
  • Sex
  • Age
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:
Classifications used:
  • Age
  • Degree of limitation
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:
Classifications used:
  • Age
  • Income group
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
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Classifications used:
  • Age
  • Disability status
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:
Classifications used:
Disability status
Reference period cycle:
irregular
Updating frequency:
irregular
Updated:

Future releases

Documentation

Description of the production, used methods and quality of the statistics.

Go to documentation of the statistics

Referencing instructions

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Statistics on living conditions [online publication].
Reference period: 2025. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [Referenced: 26.3.2026].
Access method:

Statistical experts

Inquiries primarily

Kaisa-Mari Okkonen
Senior Statistician
029 551 3408

Head of Department in charge

Harri Lehtinen
Head of Department in charge
029 551 3403

Change

The disability data in database tables 13y2 and 13ya were revised on 26 March 2026.
Read more about the change