The Epidemiology of Disability in Saudi Arabia: National Prevalence, Functional Multimorbidity, and Age-Stratified Self-Reported Causes

Background/Objectives: Disability reflects interactions between health and contextual factors. Washington Group (WG) measures capture functional difficulty but not disabling barriers. Thus, this study aimed to describe national disability patterns in Saudi Arabia using aggregate WG-aligned indicators.

Methods

We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional secondary analysis of aggregate data from the Saudi Population and Housing Census 2022 and the 2023 Disability Survey published by the General Authority for Statistics. The 2023 survey covered 29,920 households across 13 administrative regions and individuals aged ≥2 years. Disability was operationalized as severe difficulty or inability in at least one functional domain (WG Grades 2–3). National counts were derived from published proportions and Census 2022 denominators.